OpenAI led last month and it actually wasn’t even close. But there have been loads of other big raises – the startup had to boost greater than $200 million to make the October list as investors were desperate to open their checkbooks for mega deals.
1. OpenAI$6.6 billion, artificial intelligence: OpenAI announced a long-awaited $6.6 billion raise at a post-money valuation of $157 billion led by Develop capital. A brand new round makes it ChatGPT creator of one of the Most worthy private firms in the world and also included investments, among others, Altimeter capital, Faithfulness, Khosla ventures, Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank and Abu Dhabi-based MGX. That was it too reported SoftBank Vision Fund will invest USD 500 million in this round. The recent round comes as the company faces a myriad of issues, including senior worker exodus and a restructuring move to rework it from a nonprofit to a for-profit company and provide co-founder Sam Altman equity in the company. The financing structure appears to take these aspects into account because it was in the type of convertible bonds and apparently allows investors to ask for a refund if the change is not made inside two years and removes the cap on investor returns. The recent round is larger than the $6 billion round Elon Muskgenerative artificial intelligence start-up, xAIofficially announced in May, which was the largest round raised so far this yr.
2. Pacific FusionUSD 900 million, energy: The next big AI round. Pacific Fusion, a startup attempting to create a fusion-based energy source, raised over $900 million in a Series A round led by Generic catalytic converter. The funding depends on the company hitting certain milestones – which have not been specified. The round further illustrates investor appetite for energy sources that may meet AI’s massive energy needs.
3. (certain) Crusoe’s energy systemsUSD 500 million, energy: In 2022, the Denver-based company helped mine Bitcoin by taking natural gas, which is typically burned in oil extraction, and using it to power the data centers needed for mining, raising a $350 million Series C capital round led by G2 enterprise partnersat a valuation of $1.75 billion. Well, Crusoe has now set his sights on artificial intelligence – literally. The company is a so-called “neocloud” – a data center company that gives outsourced cloud computing for those seeking to build artificial intelligence. This marketing strategy was enough for Crusoe apparently close $500 million round led by Founders Fund at a valuation of $3 billion. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $1.2 billion, via Crunchbase.
3. (certain) By the pool$500 million, artificial intelligence: Poolside closed the PLN 500 million series B in the lead Bain’s capital ventures. The recent round valued the startup at $3 billion, Bloomberg reported. The startup builds artificial intelligence software for developers. Poolside is just one of a handful of huge recent deals in the AI coding space. Based in San Francisco in August Magicwhich also develops AI models for writing software, raised a $320 million round and offers an AI-powered coding assistant Codium closed $150 million Series C. Poolside raised $626 million from establishment in May 2023
3. (certain) X energyUSD 500 million, energy: Rockville, Maryland-based X-energy raised roughly $500 million Series C-1, anchored by Amazon. The company develops advanced small modular nuclear reactors to provide clean energy. Amazon and X-energy are working together to bring greater than 5 gigawatts of recent energy projects online across the U.S. by 2039. Founded in 2009, X-energy has raised over $785 million, via Crunchbase.
6. Energy FormUSD 405 million, renewable energy: Form Energy, a renewable energy company developing and commercializing multi-day energy storage systems, has raised $405 million in Series F led by: T. Rowe Price. Long-term energy storage has proven to be a tough nut to crack, but Form has managed to realize industrial traction because it plans to extend production operations and industrial deployments of its iron-air battery systems. Founded in 2017, the Somerville, Massachusetts-based company has raised a total of $1.5 billion in equity and grant funding, via Crunchbase.
7. (certain) Kailera Terapeutyczna$400 million, biotechnology: There was one other big boost in biotech last month when Kailera Therapeutics announced its launch with $400 million in Series A financing co-led by: Atlas enterprise, Bain Capital Life Sciences AND RTW investments. The recent Boston-based company is developing several clinical-stage oral and injectable therapies to assist with chronic weight management.
7. (certain) Light matterUSD 400 million, data centers: Lightmatter, a startup that uses light to attach chips together and perform calculations for deep learning needed for artificial intelligence, closed a $400 million Series D led by a recent investor T. Rowe Price at a valuation of $4.4 billion. The recent round nearly quadruples its previous December valuation of $1.2 billion, following a $155 million raise led by G.V — which together with Fidelity Management and Research Co. also took part in the recent round. While Big Tech is investing a whole bunch of billions of dollars in recent AI data centers, Lightmatter is trying to resolve the energy consumption and scalability problems with these recent centers. The company’s technology uses silicon photonics, which may speed up processes while using less energy. While the idea of using light in computing is not recent, creating components has long been a challenge. Founded in 2017, Lightmatter has raised $850 million for the company. Lightmatter’s wasn’t the only big raise last month by the photonics startup. Xscape Photonics — a New York-based startup that also uses photonics technology to deal with the energy, efficiency and scalability challenges of AI data centers — raised a $44 million Series A fund, led by: IAG Capital Partners with investments corresponding to Cisco investments AND Nvidia.
9. Splitero$300 million, fintech: Part of the great thing about being a homeowner is having equity in your private home. Unfortunately, access to this capital can sometimes be burdensome. San Diego-based Splitero offers homeowners another choice, and last month the startup closed $300 million in a strategic investment from funds managed by The capital of Antarctica to proceed this mission. Splitero offers homeowners a lump sum of money in exchange for a portion of their home’s future value. Founded in 2021, the company has raised nearly $318 million, via Crunchbase.
10. Seaport TherapyUSD 225 million, biotechnology: Seaport Therapeutics is not recent to this list. In April, the Boston-based startup launched a $100 million Series A, co-led by Arch Venture Partners AND Sofinnova investments. The company returns with a $225 million Series B led by the company General of the Atlantic. The biotech company focuses on drugs for depression, anxiety and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Seaport will use the recent money to enhance its pipeline of clinical-stage drugs.
Great global offers
The largest transaction outside the United States got here from across the Pacific.
- Based in China International GDSdata center developer and operator, raised $1 billion from institutional private equity investors.
Methodology
We have tracked the largest rounds raised by US-based firms in the Crunchbase database for October 2024. While most announced rounds are included in the database, there could also be a slight delay as some rounds are reported late in the month.