Funding
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AI's Biggest Week: Funding, Launches & Open Source
xAI bags $20B, Anthropic closes a $30B Series G, and the AlphaGo creator raises $1B to build AI without LLMs. Meanwhile, AI-generated comments just killed California's pollution rules. This week in AI was anything but quiet.
AI's Trillion-Dollar Arms Race Heats Up
The AI industry just had its most intense stretch of funding and model launches ever. Anthropic raised $30B, Alibaba's Qwen3.5 is undercutting Western rivals by 60%, and a no-product startup just raised $1B at a $4B valuation. Here's what it all means.
Waabi's $1 Billion Raise and Uber Robotaxi Deal Signals Major Autonomous Vehicle Shift
Waabi just secured $1 billion in combined funding — a $750M Series C for autonomous trucking plus Uber's $250M commitment to deploy 25,000 robotaxis exclusively on its platform. This dual bet marks a strategic pivot that could reshape the autonomous vehicle landscape.
Nvidia Pours $2 Billion Into Debt-Laden CoreWeave to Secure 5GW of AI Compute
Nvidia is investing $2 billion in CoreWeave despite the cloud provider's heavy debt load—a move that secures 5GW of AI compute capacity and locks in a major customer for its upcoming Rubin architecture. This is Nvidia playing kingmaker in the AI infrastructure wars.
Synthesia's $4B Valuation and Employee Liquidity Signal Enterprise AI Video's Breakout Moment
Synthesia just raised $200 million at a $4 billion valuation—nearly double what it was worth a year ago. The British AI video startup is also letting employees cash out, a rare move that signals the enterprise AI market is growing up fast.
LiveKit Reaches Unicorn Status With $100M Raise, Cementing Its Role as Voice AI's Backbone
LiveKit, the real-time communication engine powering OpenAI's Realtime API, just hit unicorn status with a $100M Series B led by Index Ventures. The five-year-old startup's $1B valuation signals that the picks-and-shovels bet in conversational AI is paying off.
Inferact's $150M Seed Round Signals a New Era for AI Inference Infrastructure
A brand-new startup just raised $150 million at an $800 million valuation to commercialize vLLM. The seed round is one of the largest ever in AI infrastructure—and it signals a dramatic shift in how inference technology gets funded and deployed.
Neurophos Bets $110M That Light, Not Electrons, Will Power AI Inference
Neurophos just raised $110 million to build optical processors that use light instead of electrons for AI inference. With data centers hitting power walls, photonic computing might finally have its moment.
Railway's $100M Series B Bets That AI Workloads Will Break Legacy Cloud Infrastructure
Railway just raised $100 million to bet that AWS, Azure, and GCP weren't built for AI. With 2 million developers acquired through zero marketing spend, the San Francisco startup is positioning itself as the cloud platform AI-native companies actually want to use.
Ion Stoica's SGLang Project Becomes RadixArk with $400M Valuation from Accel
The Berkeley lab that gave us Spark and Ray has done it again. SGLang, the open-source inference optimization project, is spinning out as RadixArk with a $400M valuation from Accel—signaling that the AI inference market is about to get very interesting.
Humans& Just Raised the Largest Seed Round Ever—What Their 'Human-Centric' AI Bet Means
A new AI startup called Humans& just closed what may be the largest seed round in venture history: $480 million at a $4.48 billion valuation. Founded by veterans of Anthropic, xAI, and Google, the company is betting that AI's future lies in augmentation, not replacement.
Indian Startup Emergent Lands $70M to Bring 'Vibe-Coding' Mainstream—What That Actually Means
Emergent just closed a $70M round at a $300M valuation, with SoftBank and Khosla Ventures betting big on 'vibe-coding'—a new category of AI-assisted development. The Indian startup claims $50M ARR and is targeting $100M by April.
AI Video Startup Higgsfield Reaches $1.3B Valuation With Actual Revenue to Back It Up
While most AI video startups chase hype, Higgsfield just proved there's real money in the space. The ex-Snap exec's company hit unicorn status on $200M in actual revenue—a stark contrast to competitors still searching for sustainable business models.
Parloa's $350M Raise and $3B Valuation Signal Enterprise Voice AI's Breakout Moment
German voice AI startup Parloa just tripled its valuation to $3 billion in eight months, raising $350 million from General Catalyst. The rapid ascent signals that enterprise customers are ready to bet big on AI-powered customer service automation.
Harmattan AI Raises $200M From Dassault Aviation, Signals European Defense AI Maturity
French defense AI company Harmattan AI just raised $200 million at a $1.4 billion valuation, with fighter jet manufacturer Dassault Aviation leading the round. It's the clearest signal yet that Europe's aerospace giants are betting their future on AI startups.
Articul8 Raises $70M at 5x Valuation Jump as Enterprise AI Infrastructure Demand Surges
Articul8, the enterprise AI company spun out of Intel, is raising $70 million at a $500 million valuation—roughly five times its Series A price. The round, already more than half subscribed, signals strong investor appetite for enterprise AI infrastructure plays.
Resolve AI Reaches Unicorn Status on Series A—A Rare Feat Led by Lightspeed
Former Splunk executives have built Resolve AI into a unicorn before most startups close their seed extension. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the Series A at a $1 billion valuation—a vanishingly rare milestone that signals outsized conviction in AI-powered enterprise infrastructure.
OpenAI's $100 Billion Fundraise Would Dwarf All Previous Tech Rounds Combined
OpenAI is attempting to raise $100 billion at an $830 billion valuation by Q1 2026—a fundraise so large it would surpass the combined totals of the biggest private rounds in tech history. The company is courting sovereign wealth funds for what could be the defining capital event of the AI era.
Lovable's $6.6B Valuation Signals Investor Frenzy for AI Coding Tools
Lovable just raised $330 million at a $6.6 billion valuation—more than tripling since July. The 'vibe coding' startup's meteoric rise signals a new phase in AI-assisted development.
Databricks Valuation Jumps 34% in Three Months as AI Data Platform Demand Surges
Databricks just raised $4 billion at a $134 billion valuation—a 34% jump from just three months ago. The Series L round signals that enterprise AI infrastructure is entering a new phase of investment intensity.
OpenAI-Backed Chai Discovery Hits $1.3B Valuation With Foundation Models for Drug Discovery
Chai Discovery just raised $130M at a $1.3 billion valuation, with OpenAI among its backers. The startup is applying foundation model techniques to predict molecular interactions—and it signals a broader AI-biotech convergence.
Lightspeed's $9 Billion War Chest Signals Venture Capital's Deepening AI Conviction
Lightspeed Venture Partners just closed a record $9 billion in fresh capital, with AI startups firmly in its sights. The massive raise signals that top-tier VCs see plenty of runway left in the AI boom—and are positioning to capture it.
Fal's $140M Series D signals Sequoia's big bet on AI infrastructure for developers
In a market where AI valuations are under intense scrutiny, Fal just pulled off something remarkable: tripling its valuation to $4.5 billion in five months flat. Sequoia's leading the $140M Series D, and the numbers tell a story worth paying attention to.
Former Databricks AI Chief Raises $475M Seed at $4.5B to Build Brain-Inspired Computers
A two-month-old startup just raised $475 million at a $4.5 billion valuation. Unconventional AI, founded by former Databricks AI head Naveen Rao, is betting that the future of AI computing looks a lot more like your brain than your GPU.
Enterprise AI Spending Surges to $37 Billion as Startups Dominate the Application Layer
Enterprise spending on generative AI has exploded from $1.7 billion in 2023 to $37 billion in 2025, now capturing 6% of the global SaaS market. But here's the real story: startups are winning, taking $2 for every $1 incumbents earn at the application layer.
Together AI's $3.3B Bet: Why VCs Are Pouring Hundreds of Millions Into Open Source AI
Together AI just raised $305M at a $3.3B valuation—backed by NVIDIA, Salesforce, and General Catalyst. They're betting the future of AI is open source, and they're building the infrastructure to prove it.