Raising millions of dollars in funding was always a dream of emerging startups, but few managed to secure it. However, AI startups aiming to transform entire industries and solve high-impact challenges are easily securing gigantic funding from global investors. Let’s explore 12 AI startups that have grabbed over $400 million in funding.
OpenAI
OpenAI is one of the most popular AI research and deployment companies, and it has raised $6.6 billion in funding. It secured funding from Thrive Capital, Microsoft, SoftBank, NVIDIA, and other investors in October 2024. While OpenAI was already a well-funded startup, they raised additional funding to increase their compute capacity, double down on their leadership in frontier AI research, and continue building AI tools that help solve challenging problems.
Physical Intelligence
Physical Intelligence is a startup specializing in robot AI. It aims to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) so people can use robots to perform any task they want. If you haven’t heard about AGI, it is a term used to describe AI technology that is at par or above human intellect on multiple levels. In November 2024, Physical Intelligence bagged a massive $400 million in funding from Jeff Bezos, Thrive Capital, OpenAI, Bond Capital, and Lux Capital.
Poolside
Poolside is an AI-powered software development platform that develops its own AI models to help with tasks like suggesting code possibly relevant to a particular context or codebase and autocompleting code. This startup raised $500 million in funding in October 2024 in a Series B round led by Bain Capital Ventures. Other big tech firms like eBay and NVIDIA also participated in the funding. Poolside plans to use this funding to enhance its R&D efforts.
Lightmatter
Lightmatter is a photonic computing startup that develops methods for computer chips to communicate and perform calculations using silicon photonics. Much of its customer base comprises cloud providers and AI companies. In October 2024, Lightmatter raised $400 million in a Series D round led by T. Rowe Price. They plan to use this funding to manufacture and deploy more photonic chips in their partner data centers. Team expansion across the United States and Canada is also on the horizon.
Safe Superintelligence
Co-founded by OpenAI’s former chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever, Safe Superintelligence is a tech startup that aims to create a safe superintelligence for everyone. In September 2024, it raised $1 billion in funding from top investors like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and SV Angel. Safe Superintelligence plans to utilize this funding to acquire computing power and hire the best researchers and engineers to bring its vision of creating ‘safe’ superintelligence to life.
Groq
Not to be confused with Twitter’s (now X) Grok, Groq is a startup that develops chips to run generative AI models faster and more efficiently than conventional processors. Groq recently secured funding of $640 million in August 2024 in a Series D round led by BlackRock. It also received funding from notable investors including Type One Ventures, Neuberger Berman, Verdure Capital Management, and others. The team at Groq plans to use this funding to scale their operational capacity, hire exceptional talent, and accelerate the next-gen LPU.
AlphaSense
This New York-based market intelligence platform helps businesses and finance professionals scout better investment opportunities by providing well-categorized, quality data. It delivers relevant news articles, financial research data, transcripts, earning reports, etc., via an interface that helps investors prioritize the best positions. This startup has received $650 million in funding in a Series F round led by Viking Global Investors and the famous American merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners. Other funding partners included Alkeon Capital, J.P Morgan Growth Equity Partners, Blue Owl, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and more.
xAi
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, was established to boost human scientific discovery. Their primary mission is to understand the universe. While xAI currently has Grok chatbot as its only product, people may expect newer products in the future. This startup secured a massive $6 billion in funding in a Series B round in May 2024 from Sequoia Capital, Vy Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and others.
Scale AI
Scale AI is a San Francisco-based data-labeling startup that provides data that is correctly annotated and primed for training models. It serves major global brands such as Microsoft, Toyota, Meta, GM, etc. This startup made headlines in May 2024 after securing a major $1 billion funding in a Series F round. The funding round was led by Accel, followed by participation from Amazon, Meta, Tiger Global, Spark Capital, and more. The Scale AI team plans to use this funding to pave the way for AGI.
CoreWeave
This AI cloud infrastructure startup was established to tackle the most pressing and complex challenges in high-performance computing. It is one of NVIDIA’s close collaborators, offering a large scale of NVIDIA GPUs. In May 2024, CoreWeave secured a jaw-dropping $1.1 billion in funding in a series C round from investors like Fidelity, Coatue, Altimeter Capital, Magnetar Capital, and more. The newly raised funding is expected to accelerate growth.
Xaira Therapeutics
Xaira Therapeutics is an AI drug discovery startup that uses generative AI to develop drugs that would have been impossible to make without the recent AI breakthrough. In April 2024, it bagged a whopping $1 billion in funding in a Series A round led by ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Capital. Other participating investors include Sequoia Capital, F-Prime, NEA, Lux Capital, and others.
Figure
It is a Silicon Valley-based AI robotics startup that plans to build humanoid robots that can perform the most undesirable and dangerous jobs. Figure envisions its humanoid robots being used in logistics, shipping, warehousing, manufacturing, retail, and all other sectors where labor shortages are severe. This startup garnered much attention in February 2024 after landing a massive $675 million in funding from NVIDIA, Microsoft, Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, and others.
