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Largest AI Funding Rounds and Valuations

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As of July 2026, the largest AI funding round on record is OpenAI's $122 billion raise, which closed in March 2026 at an $852 billion post-money valuation, the biggest private financing in history [3]. The single most valuable AI company is Anthropic: its $65 billion Series H in May 2026 set a $965 billion post-money valuation, edging past OpenAI to become the most valuable private company in the world [6]. Behind them sit xAI (valued at $250 billion inside its SpaceX merger) [8], Databricks ($134 billion) [15], and Waymo ($126 billion) [18]. One terminology note used throughout this page: the "Amount" column is new capital raised (or, for a secondary, the value of shares sold), while "Valuation" is the post-money company valuation. Those two numbers are very different and are kept in separate columns.

Which AI companies have the highest valuations in 2026?

Ranked by most recent post-money valuation (private companies, unless noted). This directly answers "biggest AI startup valuations 2026."

RankCompanyValuation (post-money)As ofBasis
1Anthropic$965B2026-05Series H raise [6]
2OpenAI$852B2026-03$122B primary round [3]
3xAI$250B2026-02value inside SpaceX all-stock merger [8]
4Databricks$134B2026-02Series L (reportedly in talks at a higher price mid-2026) [15]
5Waymo$126B2026-02$16B growth round [18]
6Figure AI$39B2025-09Series C [21]
7Safe Superintelligence$32B2025-04growth round [10]
8Anysphere (Cursor)$29.3B2025-11Series D [20]
9Scale AI$29B2025-06Meta 49% stake [16]
10Perplexity AI~$20B2025-09growth round [22]
11Mistral AI~$14B (EUR 11.7B)2025-09Series C [11]
12Thinking Machines Lab$12B2025-07seed (later $50B talks did not close) [12][13]
publicCoreWeavepublic, Nasdaq: CRWV2025-03 IPO$40 IPO price, ~$23B debut [19]

Last verified: July 2026. Currency is USD unless marked EUR. A "~" marks an approximate or converted figure.

What are the largest AI funding rounds ever? (timeline)

Chronological (oldest first, so the table stays append-friendly as new rounds close). "Amount" is capital raised; "Valuation" is post-money.

Date (YYYY-MM)CompanyRound / eventAmountValuation (post-money)Lead investors
2024-09Safe SuperintelligenceSeed$1B$5BSequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global [10]
2024-10WaymoSeries C$5.6B$45BAlphabet [18]
2025-03OpenAISoftBank-led round$40B$300BSoftBank [1]
2025-04Safe SuperintelligenceGrowth round$2B$32BGreenoaks [10]
2025-06Scale AIStrategic investment (49% stake)$14.3B$29BMeta [16]
2025-07Thinking Machines LabSeed$2B$12BAndreessen Horowitz [12]
2025-08DatabricksSeries K~$1B>$100Ba16z, Insight Partners, MGX, Thrive Capital [14]
2025-09AnthropicSeries F$13B$183BICONIQ Capital [4]
2025-09Mistral AISeries CEUR 1.7B (~$2B)EUR 11.7B (~$14B)ASML [11]
2025-09Figure AISeries C>$1B$39BParkway Venture Capital [21]
2025-09Perplexity AIGrowth round~$200M~$20Bn/r [22]
2025-10OpenAISecondary share sale$6.6B (employee shares)$500BSoftBank [2]
2025-11Anysphere (Cursor)Series D$2.3B$29.3BAccel, Coatue [20]
2025-12DatabricksSeries L (closed 2026-02)$5B equity (+$2B debt)$134Bexisting investors [15]
2026-01xAISeries E$20B~$230BNvidia, Cisco (strategic), Valor, Fidelity, QIA [7]
2026-02WaymoGrowth round$16B$126BAlphabet, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, Dragoneer [18]
2026-02xAIAcquired by SpaceX (all-stock)n/a (M&A)$250B (of $1.25T combined)SpaceX [8]
2026-03OpenAIPrimary round$122B$852BAmazon, Nvidia, SoftBank [3]
2026-05AnthropicSeries H$65B$965BAltimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia Capital [6]

Last verified: July 2026. "n/r" = not reported. "n/a" = not applicable (an M&A event, not a cash raise).

What is the largest AI funding round in history?

OpenAI's March 2026 round is the largest private financing ever recorded. The company took in $122 billion of fresh capital at an $852 billion post-money valuation, closing on March 31, 2026 [3]. Amazon committed $50 billion, while Nvidia and SoftBank each put in $30 billion; roughly $35 billion of Amazon's stake is contingent on OpenAI going public or reaching AGI, and more than $3 billion of the total came from individual investors through bank channels [3]. It dwarfs OpenAI's own prior record, the $40 billion SoftBank-led round of March 2025 that valued the company at $300 billion [1], which had itself been the largest private raise at the time. In between, an October 2025 secondary sale let employees sell about $6.6 billion of stock at a $500 billion valuation, a repricing rather than new capital for the company [2].

Which AI company is worth the most in 2026?

Anthropic. Its $65 billion Series H closed on May 28, 2026 at a $965 billion post-money valuation, co-led by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital, making it the most valuable private company in the world and the first AI lab to approach a $1 trillion private valuation [6]. That figure nearly tripled Anthropic's own $380 billion Series G valuation from February 2026 (a $30 billion round led by GIC and Coatue) [5], which had itself roughly doubled the $183 billion post-money set by the $13 billion Series F in September 2025 [4]. The Series H is widely described as Anthropic's likely last private round before an IPO [6].

How do the frontier AI labs compare?

Five pure-play model labs dominate the valuation table. OpenAI ($852B) and Anthropic ($965B) are in a class of their own [3][6]. xAI raised a $20 billion Series E in January 2026 at roughly $230 billion, upsized from a $15 billion target, with Nvidia and Cisco as strategic investors [7]; weeks later, in February 2026, SpaceX acquired xAI in an all-stock deal that valued the combined company at $1.25 trillion, with SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, the largest corporate merger on record [8]. Further down, Safe Superintelligence, the lab founded by Ilya Sutskever, reached $32 billion in April 2025 on a $2 billion raise despite having no product [10]. Europe's Mistral AI hit roughly $14 billion (EUR 11.7 billion) in September 2025 after ASML led a EUR 1.7 billion Series C [11]. Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab set an AI seed record at $2 billion and a $12 billion valuation in July 2025 [12].

Which infrastructure and application companies raised the most?

Outside the model labs, the biggest checks went to compute and data. Databricks crossed $100 billion with its August 2025 Series K, then reached a $134 billion valuation on its ~$5 billion Series L (plus about $2 billion of debt), completed in February 2026 [14][15]. Waymo, Alphabet's robotaxi unit, raised $16 billion at a $126 billion post-money valuation in February 2026, led by Sequoia Capital, DST Global, and Dragoneer with Alphabet as majority investor, nearly tripling its $45 billion valuation from the October 2024 Series C [18]. Scale AI took a $14.3 billion strategic investment from Meta in June 2025 for a 49% stake at a $29 billion valuation, after which founder Alexandr Wang left to run Meta's superintelligence lab [16]. In coding tools, Anysphere (maker of Cursor) raised a $2.3 billion Series D at $29.3 billion in November 2025 [20], and in robotics Figure AI raised more than $1 billion at a $39 billion valuation in September 2025 [21]. CoreWeave, the GPU cloud, is the notable public-market exit: its March 2025 IPO priced at $40 per share, raising about $1.5 billion for a roughly $23 billion debut before an eventful first year on Nasdaq under the ticker CRWV [19].

Which reported rounds should be treated with caution?

Several widely cited figures were reported but not confirmed as closed as of July 2026, and should be flagged when quoting them. Thinking Machines Lab was reported in late 2025 to be raising at $50 billion to $60 billion, but that round did not close and its valuation reset to the $12 billion seed level [12][13]. Databricks was reported in mid-2026 to be in talks for a new round above its $134 billion mark, but no such raise had been confirmed [15]. IPO timing for both OpenAI and Anthropic is anticipated but unscheduled; treat any pre-IPO valuation claim above the last closed private round as reported, not settled.

References

  1. Bloomberg, "OpenAI Finalizes $40 Billion SoftBank-Led Funding at $300 Billion Valuation," 2025-03-31. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-31/openai-finalizes-40-billion-funding-at-300-billion-valuation ; CNBC, "OpenAI closes $40 billion funding round," 2025-03-31. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/31/openai-closes-40-billion-in-funding-the-largest-private-fundraise-in-history-softbank-chatgpt.html ↩
  2. Crunchbase News, "OpenAI's $6.6B Secondary Share Sale Gives It Record $500B Valuation, Topping SpaceX," 2025-10. https://news.crunchbase.com/ai/openai-valuation-secondary-share-sale-biggest-unicorn-spacex/ ; Fortune, "OpenAI valuation reaches $500 billion, topping Musk's SpaceX," 2025-10-02. https://fortune.com/2025/10/02/openai-valuation-reaches-500-billion-topping-musks-spacex/ ↩
  3. Bloomberg, "OpenAI Valued at $852 Billion After Completing $122 Billion Round," 2026-03-31. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-31/openai-valued-at-852-billion-after-completing-122-billion-round ; OpenAI, "Accelerating the next phase of AI," 2026-03-31. https://openai.com/index/accelerating-the-next-phase-ai/ ↩
  4. Anthropic revenue and funding profile (Series F, $13B at $183B, 2025-09), Sacra. https://sacra.com/c/anthropic/ ↩
  5. Anthropic, "Anthropic raises $30 billion in Series G funding at $380 billion post-money valuation," 2026-02. https://www.anthropic.com/news/anthropic-raises-30-billion-series-g-funding-380-billion-post-money-valuation ; TechCrunch, 2026-02-12. https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/12/anthropic-raises-another-30-billion-in-series-g-with-a-new-value-of-380-billion/ ↩
  6. Anthropic, "Anthropic raises $65B in Series H funding at $965B post-money valuation," 2026-05-28. https://www.anthropic.com/news/series-h ; CNBC, "Anthropic tops OpenAI as most valuable AI startup," 2026-05-28. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/28/anthropic-open-ai-startup-value.html ↩
  7. CNBC, "Elon Musk's xAI raises $20 billion from investors including Nvidia, Cisco, Fidelity," 2026-01-06. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/06/elon-musk-xai-raises-20-billion-from-nvidia-cisco-investors.html ; TechCrunch, "xAI says it raised $20B in Series E funding," 2026-01-06. https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/06/xai-says-it-raised-20b-in-series-e-funding/ ↩
  8. CNBC, "Musk's xAI, SpaceX combo is the biggest merger of all time, valued at $1.25 trillion," 2026-02-03. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/03/musk-xai-spacex-biggest-merger-ever.html ; CNN Business, "Elon Musk's SpaceX acquires xAI," 2026-02-02. https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/02/tech/spacex-acquires-xai-elon-musk ↩
  9. OpenAI, "New funding to build towards AGI," 2025-03. https://openai.com/index/march-funding-updates/
  10. Crunchbase News, "The 10 Biggest Rounds Of April: Safe Superintelligence's $2B Round Leads The Way," 2025-04. https://news.crunchbase.com/business/biggest-rounds-april-2025-safe-superintelligence-plaid/ ; Built In, "Safe Superintelligence Raises $2B at $32B Valuation," 2025-04-15. https://www.builtinsf.com/articles/safe-superintelligence-raises-2b-32b-valuation-20250415 ↩
  11. CNBC, "AI firm Mistral valued at $14 billion as chip giant ASML takes major stake," 2025-09-09. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/09/ai-firm-mistral-valued-at-14-billion-as-asml-takes-major-stake.html ; Mistral AI, "Mistral AI raises EUR 1.7B," 2025-09. https://mistral.ai/news/mistral-ai-raises-1-7-b-to-accelerate-technological-progress-with-ai/ ↩
  12. TechCrunch, "Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab is worth $12B in seed round," 2025-07-15. https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-is-worth-12b-in-seed-round/ ↩
  13. TechCrunch, "Google deepens Thinking Machines Lab ties with new multibillion-dollar deal," 2026-04-22 (context on the unclosed $50B-$60B talks). https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/22/exclusive-google-deepens-thinking-machines-lab-ties-with-new-multi-billion-dollar-deal/ ↩
  14. Databricks, "Databricks is raising a Series K Investment at >$100 billion valuation," 2025-08. https://www.databricks.com/company/newsroom/press-releases/databricks-raising-series-k-investment-100-billion-valuation ↩
  15. CNBC, "Databricks completes $5 billion funding round at $134 billion valuation," 2026-02-09. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/09/databricks-completes-5-billion-funding-round-with-2-billion-in-debt.html ; CNBC, "Databricks raises capital at $134 billion valuation," 2025-12-16. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/16/databricks-funding-valuation.html ↩
  16. TechCrunch, "Scale AI confirms significant investment from Meta," 2025-06-13. https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/13/scale-ai-confirms-significant-investment-from-meta-says-ceo-alexandr-wang-is-leaving/ ; Forbes, "Meta Invests $14 Billion In Scale AI," 2025-06-23. https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2025/06/23/meta-invests-14-billion-in-scale-ai-to-strengthen-model-training/ ↩
  17. Waymo prior-round context ($5.6B at $45B, 2024-10) as reported in the February 2026 coverage below.
  18. CNBC, "Waymo announces $16 billion funding round," 2026-02-02. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/02/waymo-announced-16-billion-fundraising-round.html ; Bloomberg, "Waymo Raises $16 Billion From Alphabet, Others," 2026-02-02. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-02/waymo-raises-16-billion-from-alphabet-others-to-expand-service ↩
  19. CoreWeave, "CoreWeave Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering," 2025-03-27. https://www.coreweave.com/news/coreweave-announces-pricing-of-initial-public-offering ↩
  20. Crunchbase News, "Cursor's $2.3B Financing," 2025-11. https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/cursor-financing-ai-coding-automation/ ; Cursor, "Series D," 2025-11. https://cursor.com/blog/series-d ↩
  21. Figure AI, "Figure Exceeds $1B in Series C Funding at $39B Post-Money Valuation," 2025-09-16. https://www.figure.ai/news/series-c ↩
  22. Yahoo Finance / The Information, "Perplexity finalizes $20 billion valuation round," 2025-09. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/perplexity-finalizes-20-billion-valuation-232758524.html ↩

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