AI startups raised $2.43 billion in primary funding across 16 rounds of $20 million or more between October 26 and November 1, 2026. South Korean chipmaker FuriosaAI’s $620 million Series D was the largest round, just ahead of Bedrock Robotics’ $600 million Series C.
The largest AI acquisition was Guidewire’s agreement to buy London-based hyperexponential for $1.7 billion in cash plus up to $400 million tied to revenue targets. In Brazil, Itaú Unibanco agreed to buy NeoSpace for R$2.925 billion (about $589 million).
US companies took $1.52 billion, or 62.5% of the primary total. Asia-Pacific drew $770 million (31.7%) through FuriosaAI and China’s Nano-core Chip. Canada’s Solink added $100 million (4.1%), and the UK’s Machenta $40 million (1.6%).
Several deals appear in the tables but stay out of that total. Cohere announced the first close of a Series E that targets up to C$7 billion, but it did not say how much money has come in so far.
Collective’s $100 million package includes a $60 million growth facility from General Catalyst. That money is repaid from revenue instead of being swapped for shares, so only Collective’s $40 million equity round is counted.
Upwind’s $400 million Series C included $300 million first reported in September, so only the newly disclosed $100 million counts here. Acquisitions pay existing owners, and fund closes are money that investment firms raise to back startups later, so neither is part of the primary total. No secondary sales or employee tenders qualified this week.
Growth and early-stage AI funding rounds
The table lists every AI startup round of $20 million or more announced in the window, ordered by amount. Cohere sits at the bottom because the size of its initial close was not disclosed.
| Company | What it does | Round | Amount | Valuation | Lead and notable investors | HQ | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FuriosaAI | AI inference chips (RNGD) for data centers | Series D | $620M (KRW 820B) | ~$2.9B post-money | Korea’s National Growth Fund (~$280M); Infinitum, Jericho Capital, Worldline Capital, Cisco Investments, Kakao Investment | Seoul, South Korea | Asia-Pacific |
| Bedrock Robotics | Autonomy kits for excavators and heavy construction equipment | Series C | $600M | $4.1B post-money | CapitalG, Emergence Capital (co-leads); Valor Equity Partners, 8VC, NVentures | San Francisco, US | US |
| Serval | AI agents for IT, HR and finance service requests | Series C | $150M | $3B post-money | Sequoia (lead); First Round, General Catalyst, Redpoint, Conviction | San Francisco, US | US |
| Nano-core Chip | AI inference chips using near-memory and in-memory computing | Series C2 | RMB 1B+ (~$150M) | Not disclosed | JianTou Investment (lead); Hangzhou Capital, Kaitai Capital | Hangzhou, China | Asia-Pacific |
| Dulo | Foundation models for hardware engineering design | Seed | $130M | Not disclosed | Lead not disclosed; Eric Schmidt, John Doerr, DST Global, Construct Capital, Lowercarbon Capital | San Francisco, US | US |
| Upwind | Runtime security for cloud and AI workloads | Series C (expansion) | $100M new ($400M total) | $3.8B | Bessemer Venture Partners (lead); Greylock, Canapi Ventures | San Francisco, US | US |
| Solink | AI video analytics on existing security cameras | Growth round | $100M+ (C$140M) | Not disclosed | Vertu Capital (lead); Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Golub Growth, Comcast Ventures | Ottawa, Canada | Canada |
| Foundry Robotics | AI-run robotic factories for complex assembly | Series A | $100M | Not disclosed | Marlinspike Partners (lead); Khosla Ventures, SE Ventures, Wing VC | Emeryville, US | US |
| General Compute | Inference cloud built on Cerebras, SambaNova and Positron chips | Series A | $100M | $800M post-money (reported) | Blackbird, Abstract (co-leads); Fuse Venture Partners, Village Global | San Francisco, US | US |
| Hex | AI-native data analytics platform for people and agents | Series D | $100M | $1.2B | Peak XV, 137 Ventures (co-leads); a16z, Sequoia, Redpoint, Amplify | San Francisco, US | US |
| Nevis | AI operating system for wealth management firms | Series B | $70M | ~$500M (reported) | EQT Ventures (lead); Charles Schwab, QuantumLight, Sequoia, ICONIQ, Ribbit Capital | New York, US | US |
| Fragment | AI agents that resolve procurement and payment exceptions | Seed and Series A (combined) | $56M | Not disclosed | 8VC (Series A lead); General Catalyst, A* (seed co-leads) | San Francisco, US | US |
| Hyphenate | AI agents for corporate finance teams | Series A | $45M | Not disclosed | Nexus Venture Partners (lead); B Capital, Foundation Capital, BoldCap | New York, US | US |
| Collective | AI financial operating system for solo businesses | Series B plus growth facility | $40M equity + $60M facility | Not disclosed | General Catalyst, QED Investors, Gradient Ventures (co-leads); Intuit Ventures, FT Partners | San Francisco, US | US |
| Machenta | Robot model that learns a task from one demonstration | Seed | $40M (~£30M) | Not disclosed | Creandum, Union Square Ventures (co-leads) | London, UK | Europe/UK |
| Vera Health | AI search engine for clinical evidence | Series A | $28.5M | Not disclosed | Threshold Ventures (lead); Optum Ventures, Mantis VC, SV Angel, Y Combinator | San Francisco, US | US |
| Cohere | Enterprise and sovereign AI models and agents | Series E (initial close) | Undisclosed (target C$7B) | C$35.7B target (~US$25.4B) | Schwarz Group (lead); Government of Canada (up to C$1.6B), Nvidia, Bell Ventures, Bullhound Capital | Toronto, Canada | Canada |
AI chips and inference infrastructure
FuriosaAI’s round set a post-money valuation of about $2.9 billion, roughly four times its July 2025 level, when it raised a $125 million Series C. Korea’s National Growth Fund put in about $280 million, and international investors added $110 million.
The Seoul company began mass production of its RNGD accelerator in January 2026. It plans to make 20,000 cards this year and says it has secured capacity to more than double that in 2027.
Nano-core Chip’s Series C2 follows a RMB 1 billion Series C1 announced in September. The Hangzhou company says its first three chips have taped out, with customer sampling and first volume shipments planned for early 2027.
General Compute’s $800 million post-money valuation compares with $60 million after its May seed round, TechCrunch reported. The company linked the raise to a customer contract worth $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
The three deals add to a busy year for inference hardware, covered in our overview of AI chip startups and their 2026 valuations.
Physical AI, robotics and engineering design
Bedrock Robotics has raised nearly $1 billion in total. The company left stealth in July 2025 with $80 million in seed and Series A funding, and Nvidia’s NVentures backed this round.
Foundry Robotics will use its Series A to expand a 130,000-square-foot factory in Emeryville, California. Its law firm, Goodwin, said Foundry also acquired Avea Robotics, with terms not disclosed.
Machenta, an 11-person spinout from Imperial College London, trains its robot model only in simulation. Imperial called the round the largest seed ever raised by a UK robotics startup, as detailed in our report on Machenta’s $40 million seed.
Dulo was founded this year by Sebastian Thrun and Adrian Aoun to build foundation models for hardware design. The Information first reported the $130 million seed on October 29, and Aoun confirmed it on LinkedIn.
Enterprise AI agents and analytics
Serval’s valuation has moved from $232 million in August 2025 to $1 billion in December 2025 and $3 billion now. Sequoia led both the Series B and this Series C, and total funding stands at $277 million.
Hex was valued at $400 million when it raised a $70 million Series C in May 2025. The new round arrived with Hex 4.0, which the company describes as a full rewrite of its analytics platform for AI agents.
Fragment came out of stealth with $56 million raised across a seed round and a Series A. Hyphenate, which renamed itself from Maximor this month, says revenue grew 86 times since its $9 million seed about 13 months ago.
AI startups in security, finance and health
Upwind’s $3.8 billion valuation compares with $1.5 billion at its January 2026 Series B. The company said revenue has quadrupled this year, and TechCrunch reported it walked away from an acquisition offer from Datadog before the round.
Solink says it is tracking toward $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Its software runs on 500,000 cameras across 35,000 locations, and total equity raised now exceeds $198 million.
Nevis raised a $35 million Series A last December at a $200 million valuation. Fortune reported the new valuation at about $500 million, citing an unnamed source, and the company has not confirmed it.
Collective says its annual recurring revenue is growing 120% a year. Vera Health reports more than 800,000 clinicians in 190 countries using its free search tool, run by a team of 12.
Cohere’s Series E is led by Germany’s Schwarz Group. Canada’s federal government committed up to C$1.6 billion, and Nvidia, Bell Ventures and Bullhound Capital also joined the initial close.
AI funds and acquisitions
Two acquisitions and two AI-focused fund closes qualified this week. Money in these deals goes to selling shareholders or to investment firms, not into the startups’ own balance sheets.
| Company | What it does | Round | Amount | Valuation | Lead and notable investors | HQ | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hyperexponential | AI underwriting and pricing software for commercial insurers | Acquisition by Guidewire | $1.7B + $400M earnout | Not applicable | Acquirer: Guidewire, funded by a $1B term loan from Bank of America and Citibank plus cash | London, UK | Europe/UK |
| NeoSpace | Large data models for banking, credit and fraud prevention | Acquisition by Itaú Unibanco | R$2.925B (~$589M) | Not applicable | Acquirer: Itaú Unibanco; part paid at closing, rest deferred over five years | Brazil | Latin America |
| BY Venture Partners Fund III | Early-stage fund for AI-native startups | Fund close | $60M | Not applicable | Anchored by Dubai Future District Fund | Dubai, UAE | Middle East |
| U&I Ventures Fund I | Seed fund for AI-native security, engineering and IT infrastructure | Fund close (debut) | $32.2M | Not applicable | Limited partners not disclosed | San Francisco, US | US |
hyperexponential’s software has supported underwriting decisions on more than $75 billion in annual commercial premium. Guidewire expects the deal to close in the second quarter of its fiscal 2027.
Itaú already worked with NeoSpace for nearly two years and invested $15 million for a 15% stake in early 2025. The purchase still needs approval from Brazil’s competition authority, CADE, and the central bank.
BY Venture Partners has made 15 investments from Fund III out of a planned 40 and is opening an office in Lisbon. U&I Ventures’ debut fund has backed nine startups, including Pluto Security.
Regional AI funding activity outside the US
South Korea and China produced the two largest non-US rounds, FuriosaAI and Nano-core Chip. China also saw Shenzhen-based Hypersphere Technology raise “hundreds of millions of RMB” in angel funding, but TechNode reported no exact figure, so it is excluded.
Canada had Solink’s $100 million round and Cohere’s undisclosed initial close. In Europe and the UK, Machenta was the only AI round above $20 million, and hyperexponential’s sale to Guidewire was the week’s largest AI acquisition.
India had no qualifying AI deal. Inc42’s weekly report counted $130.2 million across 32 Indian startup deals from October 26 to 30, with the largest cheques going to Cent ($15 million) and Simplismart ($14 million). Glance’s investment from L Catterton was announced without an amount.
Latin America had no AI startup round of $20 million or more. Techloy’s week 44 roundup recorded just under $5 million in disclosed regional funding, led by Brazilian fintech Klubi, so NeoSpace’s sale to Itaú was the region’s only qualifying AI deal.
The Middle East had no AI startup round above $20 million in Wamda’s coverage for the week, and BY Venture Partners’ $60 million fund was the region’s only qualifying item. Africa had no qualifying AI deal; Disrupt Africa’s coverage for the period listed smaller rounds such as Medikea’s $1.2 million pre-seed.
FAQ
How much did AI startups raise from October 26 to November 1, 2026?
AI startups raised about $2.43 billion in 16 primary rounds of $20 million or more. The total leaves out Cohere’s undisclosed initial close, Collective’s $60 million growth facility, acquisitions and fund closes.
What was the largest AI funding round of the week?
FuriosaAI’s $620 million Series D was the largest. The Seoul chipmaker’s post-money valuation reached about $2.9 billion, and Korea’s National Growth Fund supplied about $280 million.
What was the biggest AI acquisition of the week?
Guidewire agreed to buy hyperexponential for $1.7 billion in cash plus up to $400 million tied to revenue targets. Itaú Unibanco’s R$2.925 billion (about $589 million) purchase of NeoSpace ranked second.
Why is Cohere’s Series E not counted in the weekly total?
Cohere announced an initial close of a round targeting up to C$7 billion but did not disclose how much has been committed. Canada’s government pledged up to C$1.6 billion.
Which regions had no qualifying AI deals this week?
India and Africa had no AI deal of $20 million or more. Latin America and the Middle East had no qualifying startup rounds, only NeoSpace’s acquisition and BY Venture Partners’ fund close.
AI funding trends this week
- Inference hardware drew the largest share. FuriosaAI, Nano-core Chip and General Compute raised $870 million together, 35.8% of primary funding, and all three build chips or clouds for running AI models rather than training them.
- Valuations rose sharply between rounds. Serval tripled to $3 billion in about ten months, Hex went from $400 million to $1.2 billion, Upwind from $1.5 billion to $3.8 billion, and General Compute from $60 million to $800 million in five months.
- A few investors showed up repeatedly. Sequoia led Serval and joined Hex and Nevis, while General Catalyst co-led Collective, co-led Fragment’s seed and backed Serval.
