AI Startup Funding Tracker
February 2026's top 15 funding rounds totaling $160B+ across frontier AI, autonomous vehicles, voice AI, spatial intelligence, robotics, and AI hardware
OpenAI
Developer of ChatGPT and the world's most-used AI platform — racing to build the infrastructure backbone of the global AI economy
OpenAI shattered all private funding records on February 27, raising $110 billion at a $730 billion pre-money valuation ($840B post-money) — the largest private tech financing in history, surpassing its own record $40B round from 2025. Amazon committed $50 billion (with $15B upfront and $35B on conditions), alongside $30 billion each from Nvidia and SoftBank. The round remains open with additional investors expected. OpenAI simultaneously announced a multiyear strategic partnership with Amazon, expanding its AWS commitment by $100 billion over eight years and naming AWS as the exclusive third-party cloud provider for its enterprise platform Frontier. OpenAI also committed to deploying 5 gigawatts of Nvidia's Vera Rubin hardware for training and inference. Weekly Codex users have tripled to 1.6 million since the start of 2026, with 9 million+ paying business users relying on ChatGPT.
Anthropic
Developer of Claude — building reliable, interpretable AI systems with 80%+ revenue from enterprise customers
Anthropic closed a landmark $30 billion Series G at $380 billion post-money — the second-largest private venture deal in history — co-led by Coatue and Singapore's GIC. Annualized revenue hit $14 billion, Claude Code ARR alone reached $2.5 billion, and enterprise subscriptions quadrupled since the start of 2026. The round included Microsoft, Nvidia, D.E. Shaw, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, ICONIQ, and MGX among 30+ investors.
Waymo
Alphabet's fully autonomous robotaxi operating commercially in 6 US cities — expanding to Tokyo, London, and 20+ markets in 2026
Waymo raised the largest autonomous vehicle round in history — $16 billion at $126 billion post-money valuation — led by Dragoneer, DST Global, and Sequoia with a16z, Silver Lake, and Fidelity also participating. With 400,000+ weekly driverless rides, the raise validates over a decade of autonomous driving R&D and sets the floor valuation for the entire AV sector.
Cerebras Systems
Developer of the world's largest AI processors — wafer-scale engines offering GPU-alternative compute for LLM inference and training
Cerebras closed a $1 billion Series H at approximately $23 billion post-money valuation, led by Tiger Global with Benchmark, Fidelity, AMD, Coatue, Altimeter, Alpha Wave Global, and 1789 Capital. Capital accelerates next-generation wafer-scale engine development and commercial partnerships as enterprises seek alternatives to Nvidia for AI inference workloads. Cerebras is building toward a public listing.
World Labs
Fei-Fei Li's spatial intelligence startup — foundational AI models that generate and reason about immersive 3D worlds
World Labs raised $1 billion from AMD, Autodesk ($200M strategic), NVIDIA, Fidelity, Emerson Collective, Sea, and others. Its Marble product enables anyone to create spatially cohesive 3D worlds from images, video, or text. The Autodesk partnership will integrate World Labs' world models into entertainment and design workflows. Total raised now stands at $1.23 billion across 3 rounds.
ElevenLabs
Leading AI voice synthesis platform — natural speech in 29 languages powering podcasts, audiobooks, enterprise support, and accessibility tools at global scale
ElevenLabs secured $500 million in Series D led by Sequoia Capital, tripling its valuation to $11 billion in one year. The round cements voice AI as a winner-takes-most category and sets the benchmark for what a pure-play voice AI company is worth. ElevenLabs' platform generates human-quality speech for enterprises, creators, and accessibility applications across thousands of voice profiles in 29 languages.
Waabi
AI-first autonomous trucking platform deploying at commercial scale through its Uber Freight partnership
Waabi raised a combined $1 billion — a $750 million Series C alongside $250 million in milestone financing — to bring autonomous AI trucks to Uber Freight at commercial scale. The committed Uber logistics partnership removes the hardest go-to-market challenge for AV trucking and creates a fundamentally differentiated business model vs. standalone AV companies.
Wayve
British AI self-driving platform powering Uber robotaxis and integrating ADAS for Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Nissan
Wayve raised $1.2 billion in Series D (up to $1.5B including milestone payments) led by Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Nissan, and Uber, bringing total funding to approximately $2.8 billion. Wayve plans to roll out Uber robotaxis in multiple cities in 2026 and integrates its ADAS platform into commercial OEM vehicles, with automaker co-leads signaling strong conviction in AI-native autonomy platforms.
MatX
Semiconductor accelerators promising ~10× GPU performance for LLM training — TSMC-fabricated sample shipments planned for 2027
MatX secured $500 million in Series B led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness — one of the largest AI chip financing deals to date. Strategic backers include chipmaker Marvell and the Stripe co-founders. Its accelerators promise roughly 10× the performance of current GPUs for AI model training, positioning MatX as a serious challenger to Nvidia in the AI training market.
Apptronik
NASA-partnered humanoid robot scaling its Apollo platform for warehouse, manufacturing, and space applications — backed by Google
Apptronik added $520 million in extension financing to its $415 million Series A, bringing the combined round to over $935 million — an extraordinary sum for a single Series A. The Austin-based company scales Apollo, a humanoid robot designed for warehouse, manufacturing, and space with NASA as key research partner. Google backing and enterprise deployment traction differentiates it from pure-VC humanoid rivals.
Runway
Leading AI creative platform for professional video generation and multimodal media production without cameras or studios
Runway raised $315 million in Series E led by General Atlantic, with Nvidia, Fidelity, and Felicis, reaching a $5.3 billion valuation. The funding reflects sustained investor enthusiasm for AI creative tools as Hollywood, advertising, and media industries accelerate adoption of generative video. Runway serves top studios and individual creators generating professional-grade video without traditional production infrastructure.
Fundamental
Deterministic AI architecture for enterprise structured and tabular data — solving the precision gap LLMs cannot fill
Fundamental raised $255 million in Series A at a $1.4 billion unicorn valuation from Oak HC/FT, Salesforce Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and QP Ventures. It builds deterministic AI for the 80% of enterprise data that is structured — spreadsheets, databases, financial records — where LLMs hallucinate or fail, delivering precise, auditable analysis at scale.
Skyryse
Universal flight operating system replacing cockpit mechanical controls with AI — retrofit-first approach for hundreds of thousands of existing aircraft
Skyryse landed over $300 million in Series C led by Autopilot Ventures and Fidelity, achieving unicorn status. Its SkyOS replaces traditional cockpit mechanical controls with a single joystick and touchscreen. The retrofit-first model means no new aircraft purchases are required, unlocking a massive global market across commercial, defense, and private aviation.
Bedrock Robotics
AI retrofit kits transforming heavy construction equipment — excavators, bulldozers, loaders — into autonomous coordinated fleets
Bedrock Robotics raised over $270 million in Series B led by CapitalG and Valor Atreides AI Fund at a reported ~$1.75 billion valuation. It develops AI retrofit kits autonomizing existing heavy construction machinery without new equipment purchases — a retrofit-first model that dramatically reduces barriers to adoption across global infrastructure and real estate markets.
Goodfire
AI interpretability platform reverse-engineering how foundation models make decisions — making black-box AI explainable and compliance-ready
Goodfire raised $150 million in Series B led by B Capital at a $1.25 billion unicorn valuation, with Juniper Ventures, Lightspeed, and Menlo Ventures participating. It builds interpretability tools that explain the internal reasoning of foundation models — a capability shifting from academic interest to enterprise compliance requirement as AI regulation tightens globally. Goodfire recently identified novel Alzheimer's biomarkers with Mayo Clinic, demonstrating real-world clinical value.