In startup circles, 2025 will be remembered as a busy year in terms of major AI cycles.
In total, 15 companies secured fundraising rounds of $2 billion or more last year, according to Crunchbase data. Among them, they have raised more than $100 billion through this financing.
The majority were generative AI companies and they accumulated most of the cash. The most important round was awarded to OpenAIwith its record amount of 40 billion dollars SoftBank-backed financing in March. Four others have raised fundraising rounds of more than $5 billion.
Looking back on the year, we thought it would be a good time to take a look at who got the biggest funding. Below are the top 15, in descending order.
1. OpenAI40 billion dollars, artificial intelligence: On March 31, OpenAI announced that it had obtained a An investment of 40 billion dollars led by SoftBank. The deal with the San Francisco-based company represents the largest venture capital investment ever. According to details of the deal, SoftBank will form a syndicate of co-investors to provide $10 billion of the total, while it plans to finance the remaining $30 billion, including $10 billion through debt.
2. Evolving AI$14.3 billion, Generative AI: San Francisco-based Scale AI, a provider of model training and evaluation data for AI applications, raised an issue $14.3 billion Since Meta in June for a valuation of $29 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Scale founder, Alexander Wangand other employees joined Meta to work on its AI efforts.
3. Anthropic$13 billion, Generative AI: Anthropic, a generative AI unicorn based in San Francisco raised a $13 billion Series F round at a valuation of $183 billion in September. Iconiq Capital led the round, with Loyalty And Lightspeed Venture Partners co-leader.
4. Prometheus Project$6.2 billion, artificial intelligence: Project Prometheus, a startup focused on applying AI technology to physical tasks, spear with $6.2 billion in initial funding, according to a November report. Jeff Bezos would be co-CEO, alongside Vik Bajajphysicist and chemist who served as CEO and co-founder of a biotechnology startup Foresite Laboratories and is also known for his work at GoogleIt is X.
5. xAI$5.3 billion, Generative AI: Elon MuskGenerative AI startup xAI raised $5.3 billion in new equity funding this summer, according to a securities report. deposit. Since its founding just two and a half years ago, the Palo Alto, California-based company has raised more than $22 billion in equity and debt financing, through Crunchbase data.
6. Data bricks4 billion dollars, data and AI: Data bricks announcement in December, it raised more than $4 billion in Series L funding at a valuation of $134 billion, led by Insight Partners, Loyalty And JP Morgan Asset Management. The 12-year-old San Francisco-based company also said it surpassed third-quarter revenue of $4.8 billion, growing more than 55% year-over-year.
7. Anthropic$3.5 billion, Generative AI: Anthropic raised a A round of funding of 3.5 billion dollars in March led by Lightspeed Venture Partnersvaluing the San Francisco-based unicorn at $61.5 billion.
8. Anduril Industries$2.5 billion, defense technology: Anduril Industries, a defense technology startup based in Costa Mesa, California, has raised $2.5 billion during a Series G round in June led by Founders Fundmore than doubling its valuation to $30.5 billion post-money.
9. Any sphere$2.3 billion, AI coding: Coding automation platform Cursor and parent company Anysphere raised $2.3 billion in a November Series D funding supported by Accelerate, Prosperous capitalization, Andreessen Horowitz, World Daylight Saving Time, Coatue, Nvidia And Google. The round pegged a post-money valuation of $29.3 billion for the San Francisco-based company.
10. (tied) Polymarket2 billion dollars, market predictions: Intercontinental exchangethe operator of clearing houses and exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, announcement in October, it will invest up to $2 billion in prediction market platform Polymarket. The deal sets a pre-money valuation of $8 billion for New York-based Polymarket, which allows users to bet on the odds of events in markets, politics, sports and other areas.
10. (tied) Thinking AI2 billion dollars, artificial intelligence: Reflection AI, a developer of open standards-based LLM training models, raised $2 billion in October financing cycle supported by Nvidia and a long list of venture capitalists. The financing sets an $8 billion valuation for the New York-based company.
10. (tied) Safe superintelligence2 billion dollars, artificial intelligence: Safe Superintelligence AI Research Lab, the Palo Alto, California-based startup co-founded by OpenAIthe former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, would have raised a $2 billion seed round in April at a $32 billion valuation, led by Greenoaks financial partners.
10. (tied) Thinking Machine Laboratory2 billion dollars, artificial intelligence: San Francisco-based Thinking Machines Lab, the artificial intelligence startup launched and led by former OpenAI Technical Director Mira Muratiwould have obtained a financing round of 2 billion dollars for a valuation of 10 billion dollars with Andreessen Horowitz as the main investor. Financing ranks among the the greatest American seed round of all timeaccording to Crunchbase data.
10. (tied) Binance2 billion dollars, cryptocurrency: Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange Binance has received a An investment of 2 billion dollars in March from an Abu Dhabi-based investment company MGX.
10. (tied) Mistral AI$2 billion, generative AI: France-based frontier model company Mistral was valued at $13.2 billion in a $2 billion financing in September led by a Netherlands-based chipmaker. ASML.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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