Last yr, artificial intelligence dominated the enterprise landscape. This is very true when you concentrate on how many startups in the industry raised nine- and even 10-figure funding rounds in 2024. To even have a likelihood of constructing this list of the largest AI startup funding rounds of the yr, the company had to lift over a billion dollars at one time. Let’s take a look.
1. Data cubes$10 billion: Databricks raised $10 billion at a $62 billion valuation, the largest enterprise capital raise of 2024 and one of the largest ever. The recent valuation represents a 44% increase over the 2023 valuation of $43 billion. The San Francisco-based company, which helps firms quickly and efficiently process, analyze and manage large amounts of information using tools corresponding to artificial intelligence and machine learning, is now the fourth most valued U.S.-based startup, after OpenAI. SpaceX AND Stripe. Develop capital led recent funding for Databricks. Andreessen Horowitz, Global summer time, GIC, Insight partners AND WCM Investment Management co-hosted the round. Databricks said other significant investors included an existing investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and recent investors Iconiq Growth, MGX, The Capital of Sands AND Managing Wellington. The company claims that it plans to make use of the recent funds for the development of recent AI products, acquisitions, foreign expansion and providing liquidity to current and former employees.
2. OpenAI$6.6 billion: OpenAI closed its second-largest round of the yr — a $6.6 billion raise at a $157 billion post-money valuation led by Develop capital. The round made it ChatGPT creator of one of the most useful 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 October funding got here as the company was grappling with a myriad of issues, including an attrition of senior staff and a restructuring move to remodel 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.
3. (sure) xAI$6 billion: In May, xAI raised a round value $6 billion, which included investments in, among others: Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Capital of Sequoia AND Fidelity Management and Research Co.among others. The funds valued the company at $24 billion after the money was transferred. This deal is not the only one we’ll see Elon Muskgenerative AI startup on this list. The company was founded in the summer of 2023 and released its ChatGPT competitor, Grok, in November 2023. Grok is trained on data from one other company owned by Musk, X (formerly Twitter).
3. (sure) xAI$6 billion: It didn’t take long for xAI to seem on this list again. In November, xAI raised one other $6 billion in a funding round, valuing it at $50 billion, Wall Street Journal reported. The recent round includes investments from Qatar Investment Authority, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz AND Capital of Sequoia.
5. Waymo$5.6 billion: Autonomous vehicle company Waymofrom which it was extricated Googlelabs, accepted a large round from its former parent, as Alphabet invested $5.6 billion in the company in a deal announced in October. The recent round valued the company at over $45 billion, marking the startup’s first raise since a $2.5 billion round in 2021.
6. Anthropic$4 billion: Also in November this yr Amazon has agreed to speculate one other $4 billion in AI startup Anthropic, a ChatGPT rival with an AI assistant named Claude. In fall 2023, Amazon agreed to speculate as much as $4 billion in Anthropic, giving the Seattle-based e-commerce and cloud services titan a minority stake in the company. The direct investment amounted to $1.25 billion, with the remaining $2.75 billion made earlier this yr. This agreement included anthropic nomenclature Amazon Online Services its primary cloud provider, and uses AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips to build, train, and deploy its models. This recent investment means Amazon will invest $8 billion in Anthropic while retaining its minority stake in the startup, Anthropic says. blog.
7. (sure) Anduril Industry$1.5 billion: Anduril Industry broke its own record in the largest defense technology round in history. In August, the Costa Mesa, California-based startup closed a $1.5 billion Series F that valued the company at $14 billion, a 69% increase from its $8.5 billion valuation. it received after its massive $1.5 billion Series E in late 2022. was co-hosted by Founders Fund AND The Capital of Sands. The company will use a portion of the recent proceeds to develop Arsenal-1, a greater than 5 million-square-foot manufacturing space designed to supply tens of 1000’s of autonomous military systems annually.
7. (sure) G42$1.5 billion: in April Microsoft has made a $1.5 billion strategic investment in UAE-based artificial intelligence company G42. Although Microsoft is investing heavily in artificial intelligence, it is nothing recent – see OpenAI — the deal with G42, an artificial intelligence holding company, has other complications that probably should have been sorted out before the deal was announced. That was it too reported the deal was concluded after negotiations between the US and the G42 aimed at withdrawing from Chinese technology and reducing its presence there. Earlier this yr, the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party submitted letter insistence Department of Commerce to research G42.
9. (sure) CoreWeave$1.1 billion: In May, AI cloud infrastructure startup CoreWeave closed a $1.1 billion round led by Coat which valued the company at $19 billion, in keeping with The Wall Street Journal. The valuation represented a nearly three-fold increase from the company’s December 2023 valuation, when it was valued at $7 billion following a secondary sale. It’s also a huge jump from the $2 billion valuation at the Series B extension in May 2023.
9. (sure) Wayve$1.1 billion: Also in May, a London-based startup dealing with autonomous cars Wayve raised roughly $1.1 billion in funding in SoftBankround led, marking one of the largest funding deals in the history of a UK startup and signaling continued investor enthusiasm for all things AI. Nvidia and current investor Microsoft also joined Series C financing. Wayve has now raised $1.3 billion, via Crunchbase. It didn’t disclose the valuation of the latest financing. Autonomous automobile technology is working embodied artificial intelligenceor a system in which a real-world object corresponding to a robot – or, in this case, a vehicle – powered by artificial intelligence software interacts with the world and continually learns about it because it moves through that environment.
Finally, 4 AI startups raised $1 billion rounds this yr: Moonshot AI, Secure superintelligence, AI scales AND Xair therapy.