In 2024, the field of artificial intelligence will continue to be hot and attract a large amount of venture capital. Although some voices believe that the AI craze has cooled down, the huge financing data strongly proves that investors’ confidence in the AI field has not diminished. In this article, the editor of Downcodes will take you to review the US AI companies that have received financing of US$100 million or more in the first ten months of 2024, take a look at the booming scene in the AI investment field, and analyze its development trends.
In the venture capital market in 2024, artificial intelligence (AI) companies still occupy an important position. Although some voices in the market say that enthusiasm for AI is beginning to wane, data shows that investors are still confident in this field.
In the third quarter of this year, AI companies raised a total of $18.9 billion in funding, accounting for 28% of all venture capital investment. Among them, OpenAI completed a round of financing of US$6.6 billion on October 2, becoming the largest single round of financing in history.
The following are U.S. AI companies that have raised $100 million or more in funding so far in 2024, compiled by Techcrunch, a foreign technology media:
October
EvenUp, an artificial intelligence legal technology company, has completed a US$135 million Series D financing, led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from companies such as SignalFire and Lightspeed. The Oct. 8 funding round values the startup at $1 billion.
Berkeley-based KoBold Metals raised $491.5 million in its latest venture capital round. Investors have not been disclosed, but the company has raised funding in the past from venture capital firms including Bond and Andreessen Horowitz.
On October 2, the artificial intelligence software development platform Poolside completed a US$500 million Series B financing. This round of financing was led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from companies such as Redpoint, StepStone and Nvidia. This round of financing values the company at $3 billion.
On October 2, OpenAI announced its highly anticipated funding round. This round of financing of US$6.6 billion is the largest financing round in history, and the company's valuation reaches US$157 billion. Thrive Capital led the round, with other investors including Tiger Global and SoftBank.
September
Enterprise search startup Glean announced its second round of 2024 funding on September 10. The company raised $260 million in Series E funding, valuing it at $4.5 billion, an increase of 87.5% since its February round.
Safe Superintelligence is an artificial intelligence research laboratory founded by former OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and artificial intelligence investor Daniel Gross. On September 4, the company announced it had raised $1 billion at a $4 billion valuation. Companies including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia and DST Global participated in the round.
August
On August 29, artificial intelligence coding startup Magic completed its second huge round of financing this year. The San Francisco-based company raised $320 million in Series C funding. CapitalG, Sequoia and Jane Street Capital were among the companies that participated in the round. The company last raised $117 million in Series B funding in February.
General Catalyst led a $150 million Series C round of financing for Codeium, an artificial intelligence coding platform, which was completed on August 29. Other participants in the round, which valued Codeium at $1.2 billion, included Kleiner Perkins and Greenoaks.
DevRev, which develops AI-powered agents, has been valued at $1.1 billion after early funding. The Silicon Valley-based company raised $100 million in Series A funding from investors including Khosla Ventures, Mayfield and Param Hansa Values. The company was founded in 2020.
San Francisco-based Abnormal Security has raised $250 million for its AI-powered email security company. The round was led by Wellington Management, with participation from Menlo Ventures, Greylock and Insight Partners. The company is valued at over $5 billion.
Groq announced on August 5 that it had completed a US$640 million Series D financing led by BlackRock. The AI chip startup also received investments from Type One Ventures, Verdure Capital Management and Neuberger Berman, among others. The company is valued at over $3 billion.
July
According to sources, World Labs, a startup company founded by famous artificial intelligence researcher Li Feifei, raised US$100 million in July, and the startup’s valuation has exceeded US$1 billion. World Labs is seeking to build artificial intelligence models that can accurately estimate the three-dimensional physical properties of real-world objects.
Legal technology company Harvey announced the completion of a $100 million Series C round of financing on July 23. This round of financing was led by Google Ventures, with participation from OpenAI, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. The round values the San Francisco-based company at $1.5 billion.
Hebbia, $130 million: Andreessen Horowitz led a funding round in Hebbia that closed on July 8. The startup, which uses generative AI to search large documents, has also received funding from Peter Thiel, Index Ventures and Google Ventures, valuing it at $700 million.
Skild AI, $300 million: Pittsburgh-based Skild AI announced the completion of a $300 million Series A round of financing on July 9, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue and Jeff Bezos' Bezos Expeditions, with participation from Sequoia, Menlo Ventures and General Catalyst. Skild AI develops robotics technology.
June
Bright Machines, $106 million: BlackRock led Bright Machines’ $106 million Series C funding round, which closed on June 25. Companies including Nvidia, Microsoft and Eclipse Ventures are also involved. The startup, which produces both smart robots and AI-powered software, has raised more than $437 million in total funding.
Etched.ai, $120 million: San Francisco-based Etched.ai closed a $120 million Series A round on June 25. This round of financing was led by Primary Venture Partners and Positive Sum, with participation from Two Sigma Ventures, Peter Thiel and Kyle Vogt. Etched.ai is working to build chips that can run AI models faster and cheaper than GPUs.
EvolutionaryScale, $142 million: New York-based EvolutionaryScale is developing biological AI models for treatment design. The company raised a $142 million seed round, which closed on June 25. The round was led by Lux Capital, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and angel investor Daniel Gross, former head of AI at Y Combinator. The company was founded in 2023.
AKASA, $120 million: Healthcare revenue cycle automation platform Akasa announced on June 18 the completion of a $120 million financing round. The San Francisco-based startup has raised a total of $205 million in funding, with investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Costanoa Ventures and Bond in previous rounds.
AlphaSense, $650 million: New York-based AlphaSense announced on June 11 it had raised $650 million in Series F funding. This round of financing was led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners, with participation from CapitalG, SoftBank Vision Fund and Goldman Sachs. AlphaSense is a market intelligence platform founded in 2008. The company has raised more than $1.4 billion in venture capital and was most recently valued at $4 billion.
May
xAI, $6 billion: Elon Musk’s xAI raised a staggering $6 billion in Series B funding on May 31 from investors including Sequoia, Valor Equity Partners and Fidelity. The startup, which is building an AI platform to "accelerate human scientific discovery," is also valued at $24 billion.
Scale AI, $1 billion: Scale AI, a startup that provides data labeling services to enterprises to train AI models, raised $1 billion in May. The Series F round was led by Accel, with participation from Tiger Global, Spark Capital and Amazon. San Francisco-based Scale AI has raised more than $1.6 billion in total and is currently valued at nearly $14 billion.
Suno, $125 million: Suno, an artificial intelligence music creation platform, raised $125 million in a Series B round of funding that closed on May 21. The funding round values the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup at $500 million. Founder Collective, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Matrix participated in the round, along with former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and former Y Combinator artificial intelligence head Daniel Gross.
Weka, $140 million: Silicon Valley-based Weka creates an AI-native data platform and raised $140 million in a Series E funding round that closed on May 13. The financing was led by Valor Equity Partners, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures, Nvidia and Hitachi Venture Partners. The startup is valued at $1.6 billion.
CoreWeave, $1.1 billion: New Jersey-based GPU infrastructure provider CoreWeave raised $1.1 billion in a Series C funding round that closed on May 1. Coatue led the round, with participation from Fidelity, Altimeter Capital and Magnetar Capital. CoreWeave was founded in 2017 and is valued at $19 billion.
April
Blaize, $106 million: Artificial intelligence computing platform company Blaize raised $106 million in a Series D round announced on April 29. Investors participating in this round of financing include Temasek, Franklin Templeton and Bess Ventures. The company was founded in 2010 and has raised $242 million.
Augment, $227 million: Palo Alto-based Augment raised $227 million for its AI coding assistance startup. The startup’s Series B round was announced on April 24. Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures participated in the round, which values the startup at just under $1 billion.
Cognition, $175 million: Founders Fund led a $175 million funding round for applied AI lab startup Cognition, which closed on April 24. The round comes about a month after the company raised $21 million in Series A funding in March from Founders Fund and a host of other investors, including Ramp co-founder Eric Glyman, Stripe co-founder Patrick and John Collison and DoorDash co-founder Tony Xu. The company was established in November 2023 and has a valuation of nearly US$2 billion.
Xaira Therapeutics, $1 billion: Xaira Therapeutics, a San Francisco-based AI drug discovery startup, raised $1 billion in Series A funding. Foresite Capital and ARCH Venture Partners led the round announced on April 23. Sequoia, NEA and Lux Capital were among several companies that participated in the round.
Cyera, $300 million: Coatue led a $300 million Series C funding round for artificial intelligence data security platform Cyera, which closed on April 9. The round values the New York-based startup at $1.4 billion. Sequoia, Redpoint and Accel also participated in this round of financing.
March
Celestial AI, $175 million: Celestial AI, founded in 2020 and building an optical interconnect technology platform for data centers and AI solutions, raised $175 million in Series C funding on March 27, bringing its total funding to $338 million. This round of financing was led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovation Technology Fund, with participation from M Ventures, Temasek and Tyche Partners.
FundGuard, $100 million: FundGuard, a New York-based startup that provides an AI-powered investment accounting operating system, raised $100 million at a $400 million valuation. The Series C round of financing closed on March 25, led by Key1Capital, with participation from Hamilton Lane, Blumberg Capital and Team8.
Together AI, $106 million: Salesforce Ventures led Together AI’s $106 million Series A funding round, valuing the company at $1.2 billion. Together AI is a platform designed to help create infrastructure and open source generative AI to develop AI models. NEA, Kleiner Perkins and Lux Capital also participated in this round of financing. The funding round was announced on March 13.
Zephyr AI, $111 million: Fairfax Station, Virginia-based Zephyr AI raised $111 million in Series A funding, which closed on March 13. Revolution Growth, Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, EPIQ Capital Group and investor Jeff Skoll all participated in the round. Founded in 2020, the startup uses artificial intelligence to enhance drug discovery and precision medicine. To date, it has raised $129.5 million.
February
Glean, $203 million: AI-powered enterprise search startup Glean raised $203 million in a funding round on February 27, valuing it at $2.2 billion. The Series D round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Sequoia and Databricks Ventures, among others. The Silicon Valley-based startup has raised more than $350 million in venture capital.
Figure, $675 million: Silicon Valley-based AI robotics startup Figure completed a $675 million Series B round that closed on February 24. The funding round values the startup at nearly $2.7 billion. Companies including Nvidia, OpenAI and Microsoft participated in the round. The startup was founded in 2022 and has raised more than $850 million.
Abridge, $150 million: Pittsburgh-based Abridge, which uses artificial intelligence to transcribe medical conversations, closed a $150 million Series C round on February 23. This round of financing was led by Redpoint and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from USV, IVP and Spark Capital. This round of funding brings the six-year-old company’s valuation to $850 million.
Recogni, $102 million: The company designs high-output but low-power AI interface solutions and raised $102 million in Series C funding on February 20. The round was led by GreatPoint Ventures and Celesta Capital. Pledge Ventures, Mayfield and DNS Capital also participated in the round.
Lambda, $320 million: San Francisco-based deep learning infrastructure company Lambda raised $320 million in a Series C round announced on February 15. This round of financing was led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovation Technology Fund, with participation from Gradient Ventures, Mercato Partners and T. Rowe Price. Lambda has raised more than $900 million in venture capital and was most recently valued at $1.5 billion.
Magic, $117 million: Artificial intelligence coding startup Magic raised $117 million in Series B funding, which closed on February 12. The round was led by NFDG Ventures, with participation from CapitalG and angel investor Elad Gil. The San Francisco-based company has raised more than $145 million in total capital.
January
Kore.ai, $150 million: Kore.ai, a startup building conversational AI for enterprises, announced the completion of a $150 million Series D round of financing on January 30. FTV Capital led the investment in the Orlando, Florida-based company. Nvidia, Vistara Growth and NextEquity Partners are among those also participating. Founded in 2013, Kore.ai has raised more than $223 million in funding.
All in all, the financing enthusiasm in the AI field will continue unabated in 2024, and many companies have received huge amounts of financing, demonstrating the huge development potential and market prospects of AI technology. The editor of Downcodes will continue to pay attention to the development of the AI field and bring you more exciting reports.