There was a time when raising over a billion dollars for an AI startup was enough to achieve a little recognition.
Not anymore. Currently, the list of heavily funded AI firms is long enough that it is difficult to maintain track of all of them.
According to Crunchbase dataover the last few years, at least 23 private AI startups* have been funded and have raised over $1 billion in equity financing to this point. Five of them raised greater than $6 billion.
Below is a list of all members of the billion-dollar-plus funding club, ranked by total investment amount.
The 4 primary categories of huge AI fundraisers
Generative AI stays the hottest startup funding space, so it isn’t surprising that the largest recipients of funding fall into this category. This naturally includes OpenAIwhich raised $6.6 billion this month at a post-money valuation of $157 billion.
Next in the AI gene category are Anthropicwith total equity financing of $8.4 billion, and xAIwith an amount of USD 6.4 billion.
Autonomy, vertical AI and tools
In addition to generative AI, the best-funded AI firms could be divided into three other broad categories. These include autonomous driving, vertical artificial intelligence, and AI workload and data management tools.
Of these three groups, autonomous driving is the most financed. And in this space it is a leader among private firms WaymoWith Equity financing to this point has totaled $10.5 billionincluding a $5 billion injection from the parent company Alphabet in July.
General Motors‘ Cruise ranks second with $8.9 billion in equity financing to this point. In June, the San Francisco-based company raised $850 million in a GM-backed financing round.
Vendors of AI workload and data management tools and platforms are also scaling up. Data cubes is the largest recipient of funds in this category, with capital value roughly USD 4 billion to this point.
Vertical AI, or AI that targets specific industries, has also spawned several startups with equity funding of $1 billion or more.
In this area based in New York AlphaSense has raised $1.4 billion so far for an AI-based market intelligence platform, with a particular focus on financial services. Another example is a company based in San Francisco Xair therapywho has raised $1 billion using artificial intelligence for drug discovery and development.
Not done yet
There is no indication that the flood of funds for already heavily capitalized artificial intelligence start-ups will abate. If anything, it seems that there is more and more noise around ongoing rounds and announcements of recent, gigantic investments.