AI Startup Funding Tracker
July 2026's top 15 funding rounds totaling $13.3B+ across foundational AI safety, industrial robotics, fusion energy, thermal batteries, AI drug discovery, and open-source inference infrastructure
Safe Superintelligence (SSI)
Ilya Sutskever's stealth AI lab lands a $5 billion partnership from Nvidia with zero product and zero revenue — a pure bet on alignment research and the Vera Rubin compute platform
Safe Superintelligence, the AI research lab founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever in 2024, announced a long-term strategic partnership with Nvidia that includes a reported $5 billion investment and exclusive access to the Vera Rubin GPU platform. The deal — the largest pure-research AI financing of 2026 — values SSI at $32 billion despite having no consumer product, API, or revenue stream. Sutskever's "straight shot" approach focuses entirely on building safe, aligned artificial superintelligence through foundational research rather than commercialization. Nvidia's investment includes a multi-year compute supply agreement expected to increase SSI's compute resources by an order of magnitude, alongside collaboration on advancing Nvidia's future compute platforms. The round signals that major capital is willing to back long-horizon AI safety bets even as the industry races toward productization.
Atoms
Travis Kalanick's rebranded industrial-automation holding company raises $1.7B to build a "wheelbase for robots" across food, mining, and transport — reuniting Kalanick with Uber as a backer
Atoms, the industrial automation holding company founded by Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, raised $1.7 billion in equity financing led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Uber, Bain Capital, and Fifth Wall participating. The company — rebranded in March 2026 from City Storage Systems / CloudKitchens — operates three divisions: Atoms Food (ghost kitchens and restaurant robotics), Atoms Mining (anchored by the April 2026 acquisition of Pronto, Anthony Levandowski's autonomous haulage company), and Atoms Transport. Kalanick described the raise as "fuel to complete the bits-to-atoms story arc" started at Uber. Ben Horowitz joined Atoms' board as part of the deal. The company has hauled more than two million tons of material autonomously through its mining unit and is positioning itself as an integrated operating company combining software, sensors, robotics, and physical infrastructure.
Fireworks AI
The enterprise AI platform crosses $1 billion in ARR and 40 trillion tokens processed daily as it closes the largest Series D in AI infrastructure since Baseten's June megadeal
Fireworks AI, the Redwood City-based enterprise AI infrastructure platform, raised $1.5 billion in Series D funding led by Atreides Management, Index Ventures, and TCV, with participation from NVIDIA, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Insight Partners, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and Lone Pine Capital. The round values the company at $17.5 billion and brings total funding to over $2.5 billion. Fireworks AI's platform enables enterprises to deploy custom AI models with GPU orchestration, fine-tuning, and inference optimization. The company disclosed it has crossed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue, processes more than 40 trillion tokens daily, and serves over 10,000 companies including Cursor, Cognition, and Suno.
Commonwealth Fusion Systems
The best-funded fusion startup in history raises another $1B from pension funds and sovereign wealth — the first fusion round led by conservative institutional capital rather than VC
Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced $1 billion in new equity financing — the largest single fusion raise since its own $1.8B Series B in 2021 — bringing total capital to $4 billion, roughly 30% of all private investment in fusion globally. The round was backed by pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and infrastructure/industrial corporate partners, marking the first time conservative long-horizon capital has led a fusion deal. CFS is building Sparc, its demonstration reactor now approximately 80% assembled in Devens, Massachusetts, with scientific breakeven targeted for 2027. The company is also developing Arc, the first commercial grid-scale fusion power plant in Chesterfield County, Virginia, with power purchase agreements signed with Google (200 MW) and Eni.
Together AI
The open-source AI cloud more than doubles its valuation to $8.3B as Aramco Ventures leads an $800M bet on inference workloads running at one-fifth the cost of closed models
Together AI, the San Francisco-based open-source AI infrastructure platform, raised $800 million in Series C funding at an $8.3 billion valuation, led by Aramco Ventures with participation from Vista Equity Partners, General Catalyst, Emergence Capital, Nvidia, March Capital, Pegatron, SE Ventures (SentinelOne), Salesforce Ventures, DTCP Growth, Lux Capital, Geodesic, and PSP Partners. The company reports annualized bookings exceeding $1.15 billion, driven by enterprises migrating production AI workloads to open-weight models like DeepSeek, Nemotron, MiniMax, and Kimi. Together AI's platform delivers inference at one-fifth to one-seventh the cost of closed-model alternatives. Customers include Cursor, Cognition, Decagon, Eleven Labs, and Suno. The round includes commitments for over 500 MW of independently capitalized compute capacity.
Neko Health
Daniel Ek's body-scanning startup raises $700M as it prepares to open its first US clinic in New York, with 100,000+ scans completed and 350,000+ on the waitlist
Neko Health, the Stockholm-based preventive healthcare startup founded by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and Hjalmar Nilsonne in 2023, raised $700 million in Series C funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and O.G. Venture Partners, with Atomico, General Catalyst, Lakestar, Liberty City Ventures, Positive Sum, and BDT & MSD Partners participating. The company's proprietary body-scanning technology combines sensor technology, blood analysis, and clinical assessments to collect millions of data points related to skin health, cardiovascular risk, and metabolic markers during a non-invasive one-hour scan. More than 100,000 people have already had scans, with over 350,000 registered on the waitlist. The capital will fund US expansion, including the first New York clinic, and continued R&D into early disease detection.
Wonder
The food-tech robotics platform hits a $9B pre-money valuation as it scales to 140 locations, making it one of the most highly valued private food-tech companies
Wonder, the New York-based food technology and robotics company, secured $650 million in Series D funding led by Accel, GV, and NEA, with new investors AllianceBernstein, ARK Invest, and Kayne Anderson Rudnick joining. The round sets a $9 billion pre-money valuation for the company, which operates 140 locations combining delivery-only kitchens, robotics-enabled food production, and AI-driven logistics. Wonder's platform uses automation to reduce food preparation costs and delivery times while maintaining quality consistency. The raise reflects continued investor appetite for physical-world AI applications even as software-only AI companies face valuation pressure.
Antora Energy
One of the year's largest cleantech rounds — $550M to scale thermal batteries that store electricity as heat in solid carbon blocks, with a 5 GWh system already deployed in South Dakota
Antora Energy, the San Jose-based thermal battery company, closed $550 million in Series C funding co-led by G2 Venture Partners and Eclipse, with Decarbonization Partners (BlackRock/Temasek), Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, John Doerr, Ribbit Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Activate Capital, Westly Group, StepStone Group, and Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures participating. Antora's technology stores low-cost electricity as heat in insulated blocks of solid carbon and delivers it around the clock as heat or power to industrial facilities, data centers, and the grid. The company recently deployed what it describes as one of the world's largest battery storage projects — a 5 GWh system in South Dakota. Capital will fund large-scale US deployment, a second manufacturing hub, and domestic supply chain expansion.
Antares
The first privately developed non-light-water reactor to reach criticality in 40 years raises $470M to field microreactors on US military installations by 2028
Antares Nuclear, the Torrance-based developer of small modular reactors for defense and space applications, raised $470 million in Series C funding co-led by Paradigm and Caffeinated Capital, with Point72 Ventures, Shine Capital, and Industrious Ventures participating. The round includes $370 million in equity and $100 million in debt, bringing total capital to $604 million. Antares' Mark-0 demonstration reactor reached criticality on June 4, 2026, at Idaho National Laboratory — the first time in more than four decades a new privately developed non-light-water reactor achieved criticality in the US. The company is one of three finalists in the Pentagon's Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program, with deployments to Air Force bases in Colorado and Montana planned for 2028.
CuspAI
Cambridge-based AI materials startup quintuples its valuation to $2.6B in 10 months as Jeff Bezos and John Doerr bet on AI discovering the next generation of chips, batteries, and coatings
CuspAI, the Cambridge, UK-based company using AI to discover new materials for chips, batteries, and industrial coatings, raised $450 million in Series B funding co-led by Kleiner Perkins and NEA at a $2.6 billion post-money valuation. Bezos Expeditions, Lux Capital, AMD Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, Tru Arrow Partners, StepStone, and Britain's Sovereign AI Venture Fund participated, alongside angel investor John Doerr. The valuation represents a 5x markup in roughly 10 months. CuspAI has built a partner network of 45+ foundries and advanced manufacturers including NVIDIA, Meta, and Samsung. The company does not disclose revenue but is betting that its partnerships convert into enterprise contracts faster than typical deep-tech timelines.
Chai Discovery
The 16-month-old AI biotech hits a $3.8B valuation with backing from OpenAI, Sequoia, and Kleiner Perkins — and active partnerships with Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Novartis
Chai Discovery, the San Francisco-based AI drug discovery startup founded in March 2024, raised $400 million in Series C funding led by Index Ventures, with Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Dimension, Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, Baillie Gifford, BDT & MSD, Sapphire Ventures, Avra Capital, OpenAI's investment arm, Thrive Capital, Oak HC/FT, Menlo Ventures, and General Catalyst participating. The round brings total funding past $600 million and values the company at $3.8 billion. Chai Discovery develops foundational AI models for molecular design and has established partnerships with Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis, and argenx. The company's rapid ascent reflects investor conviction that AI-native drug discovery platforms can compress timelines for identifying novel therapeutics.
Meshy AI
The largest funding round to date for AI-powered 3D generation — 12 million users, 100 million models created, and 12x year-over-year ARR growth
Meshy AI, the Sunnyvale-based startup building foundation models for AI-powered 3D content generation, raised nearly $400 million in Series B funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. The round was backed by IDG Capital, Matrix Partners China, and Monolith Management, with existing shareholders Granite Asia, HSG (formerly Sequoia China), BAI Capital, and Source Code Capital oversubscribing. Meshy's platform generates usable 3D models from a single line of text or one image in about a minute — work that previously required specialized skills, expensive software, and weeks of effort. As of July 2026, the company reports 12 million registered users, over 100 million models created, and annual recurring revenue growing approximately 12x year-over-year. The capital will fund multimodal foundation model research and global enterprise expansion.
Etched
The Harvard-dropout-founded chip startup doubles its valuation to $10.3B in seven months as Sequoia leads a $300M round with $1B in orders already booked
Etched, the San Jose-based AI chip startup founded by three Harvard dropouts in 2022, closed $300 million in Series C funding at a $10.3 billion valuation — the highest valuation ever for a Sequoia-led Series C. Sequoia Capital led the round, with Andreessen Horowitz, SK Hynix, Jane Street, and Diffusion Capital participating. Etched designs application-specific inference chips (ASICs) including its Sohu processor, which the company says can run any AI model including Mixture of Experts architectures like DeepSeek and Qwen, as well as non-transformer designs like Mamba. The company has already booked $1 billion worth of orders and is scaling production through a Taiwan factory and a new 80,000 square-foot facility in Milpitas. The round comes less than a month after Etched emerged from stealth.
Walden Robotics
A $1.1B valuation on a $300M seed — one of the largest seed rounds ever — for a Toyota-spinout building general-purpose physical AI systems with backing from Nvidia and Boeing
Walden Robotics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup spun out of Toyota Research Institute in January 2026, raised $300 million in seed funding at a $1.1 billion valuation. The round was co-led by Toyota and Deviation Capital, with NVIDIA, Boeing, AE Ventures, Samsung Ventures, Prologis Ventures, CoreWeave Ventures, Calibrate Ventures, Colle Capital, Shine Capital, NextView Ventures, Squarepoint Capital, One Madison Group, KAS Venture Partners, and Menlo Ventures participating. Walden Robotics is developing general-purpose physical AI systems capable of complex manipulation and reasoning in unstructured environments. The massive seed round reflects 2026's investor appetite for robotics capable of bridging the gap between digital AI and physical-world tasks — a category increasingly viewed as the next major platform shift after language models.
Sila
Silicon anode battery pioneer raises $300M to expand its Moses Lake manufacturing plant as automakers and device makers race for next-generation energy density
Sila, the Alameda, California-based battery technology company developing silicon anode materials to replace traditional graphite in lithium-ion batteries, raised $300 million in new funding led by Atreides Management and Sutter Hill Ventures. Sila's technology promises significantly higher energy density than conventional batteries, enabling longer range for electric vehicles and longer battery life for consumer electronics. The company will use the capital to expand its silicon anode plant in Moses Lake, Washington, and accelerate commercialization partnerships with automakers and device manufacturers. The round underscores how energy storage — alongside fusion and thermal batteries — has become a first-tier venture category in 2026 as electrification and AI data center demand strain global power infrastructure.