Nearly 20 U.S.-based AI startups have raised mega-rounds of $100 million or more in 2026 — and it’s been less than two months.
If the first few weeks of 2026 are any indicator, the AI startup market is in for another year of monster funding rounds at eye-watering valuations. U.S. AI startups raised more than $76 billion through mega-rounds in 2025, per TechCrunch’s count.
Will startups see the same success in 2026? Time will tell.
Here are all the U.S.-based AI startups that have raised $100 million or more thus far:
February
- Simile, which builds AI to mimic human decisions, raised a $100 million Series A round led by Index Ventures. The round was announced on February 12 and included Hanabi Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, and multiple angel investors.
- Anthropic announced a $30 billion Series G funding round on February 12 that valued the AI research lab at $380 billion. More than 30 investors participated in the round, including Founders Fund, Coatue, and Nvidia, among many others.
- Media-generation platform Runway raised a $315 million Series E round that valued the company at $5.3 billion. This funding was led by General Atlantic and was announced on February 10. Nvidia, Fidelity, and Felicis also invested, among others.
- Goodfire, an AI research lab, announced a $150 million Series B round on February 5. B Capital led the round with participation from Juniper Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Menlo Ventures. The round valued the company at $1.25 billion.
- AI research company Fundamental announced a $255 million Series A round on February 5. This round valued the company at $1.4 billion. Investors in the round included Oak HC/FT, Salesforce Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and QP Ventures, among others.
- Voice AI company ElevenLabs raised a $500 million Series D round that was announced on February 4. The round was led by Sequoia and valued the company at $11 billion.
January
- PaleBlueDot AI, a compute platform, raised a $150 million Series B round that valued the startup at $1 billion. The round was announced on January 28 and was led by B Capital.
- Conversational AI platform Decagon announced a $250 million Series D round on January 28. The round was co-led by Coatue and Index Ventures and valued the company at $4.5 billion.
- AI research lab Flapping Airplanes raised a $180 million seed round that was led by Google Ventures, Sequoia, and Index Ventures. The round was announced on January 28 and valued the company at $1.5 billion.
- Baseten raised a $300 million Series E round that valued the AI infrastructure startup at $5 billion. The round was led by IVP and CapitalG and was announced on January 23.
- Inferact, an AI inference startup, raised a $150 million seed round mere months after its founding. The round was announced on January 22 and garnered the company an $800 million valuation. The round was co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
- Cambridge, Massachusetts-based OpenEvidence raised a $250 million Series D round for its medical AI chatbot. The round was co-led by Thrive Global and DST Global and was announced on January 21. This round valued OpenEvidence at $12 billion.
- AI research lab humans& raised a monster $480 million seed round that was announced on January 20. Investors in the round include Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and GV, among others. This round valued the young startup at $4.48 billion.
- SkildAI, which builds AI models to power robots, raised a $1.4 billion Series C round that valued the startup at $14 billion. The round was announced on January 14 and was led by SoftBank and Nvidia.
- Voice AI platform Deepgram raised a $130 million Series C round led by AVP, with participation from Tiger Global, ServiceNow Ventures, and Madrona, among others. The round was announced on January 13 and valued the company at $1.3 billion.
- Arena, a large language model evaluation platform, raised a $150 million Series A round that was co-led by Felicis and UC Investments. This round valued the one-year-old startup at $1.7 billion and was announced on January 6.
- Elon Musk’s xAI started the new year with a bang. The AI research lab announced a $20 billion Series E round on January 6. Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity, and the Qatar Investment Authority participated in the round, among others. The company was acquired by Musk’s SpaceX a few weeks later.
