U.S. AI Startups Achieve Over $100 Million Funding Milestones in 2025
The artificial intelligence industry in the United States is experiencing remarkable expansion, with 2025 poised to rival or surpass last year’s record-breaking investment levels. In 2024, a total of 49 AI startups secured funding rounds exceeding $100 million, including seven remarkable deals topping $1 billion each.
Preliminary figures from the first half of 2025 indicate an even faster pace: several multi-billion-dollar financings have already closed, and the volume of mega-rounds in Q1 alone has outstripped that of Q1 2024. This momentum highlights growing investor enthusiasm and rapid innovation across AI technologies.
Key Investment Highlights by Quarter
April: Quantum-Inspired platforms and Creative Media Models draw Major Capital
- SandboxAQ, a leader in quantum-inspired AI solutions, secured an impressive $450 million Series E round, led by Nvidia among others. This financing values SandboxAQ at nearly $5.7 billion.
- Runway, known for its generative video models widely adopted within creative sectors, raised over $300 million (Series D). The round was spearheaded by General Atlantic and set Runway’s valuation close to $3 billion.
May: Infrastructure Enhancements and Benchmarking Tools Gain Traction
- Snorkel AI, specializing in data labeling for machine learning applications, completed a $100 million Series D round. Led by Addition with participation from Greylock and Lightspeed Venture Partners, Snorkel’s valuation now stands around $1.3 billion.
- LMArena, which provides community-driven benchmarking platforms to assess AI model performance, closed a significant $100 million seed round . Co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and UC Investments, LMArena is valued near $600 million.
- TensorWave , offering AMD-powered cloud infrastructure optimized for AI workloads from Las Vegas, raised a < strong >$100 million Series A round . Magnetar Capital joined AMD Ventures as co-leads alongside other strategic investors.
June: Enterprise Search Innovations & Advanced Coding Assistants Secure Large Rounds
- < strong >Glean< / strong > , focused on enterprise search technology , attracted a considerable < strong >$150 million Series F investment< / strong > . Wellington Management led this round with backing from Sequoia Capital , Kleiner Perkins , among others . Glean ‘ s valuation now exceeds $7.25 billion .< / li >
- < strong >Anysphere< / strong > , creator of the advanced coding assistant Cursor powered by artificial intelligence , raised nearly < strong >$900 million during its series C funding< / strong > . Thrive Capital took lead investor role alongside Andreessen Horowitz and Accel Ventures , pushing Anysphere ‘ s worth close to $10 billion .< / li >
< / ul >Pioneering March Fundraises Propel Industry Leaders Forward
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< li >OpenAI(the developer behind ChatGPT)
achieved an unprecedented milestone with an astounding$40 billion funding round,
< li >< Strong>Nexthop AI,< strong>a company enhancing foundational infrastructure for artificial intelligence systems,brought homea robust$110millionSeriesAround ledbyLightspeedVenturePartners.
< Li >< Strong>Chemical drug finding innovatorInsilico Medicinesecureda$110millionSeriesEroundvaluedat$1billion.co-ledbyValuePartnersandPudongChuangtou,thisfundraiseacceleratesAI-drivenpharmaceuticalresearch.
< Li >< Strong>CelestialAI,< Strong>a pioneerinphotonicfabric-basedAIhardware,increasedcapitalwitha$250millionSeriesCroundledbyFidelityinvestments.valuedatapproximately$2.5billion,thecompanyisreshapingAIinfrastructure.
< Li >< Strong>Lila Sciences,< Strong)a startupdevelopingscience superintelligenceplatforms,gatheredanexceptional$200millionseedinvestmentfromFlagshipPioneeringandotherstoexpanditscutting-edgecapabilities.
< Li >< Strong>Turing,< Strong>a keyproviderofcodingtoolsforlarge language modeldevelopers,succeededina$111millionSeriesEfinancingthatvalueditatover$2billion.LeadinvestorsincludedKhazanahNasionalandWestBridgeCapital.
< Li >< Strong>S hieldAI,< Str ong>AId efense technology firm,fundedwitha significant240millionseriesFroundco-ledbyL3HarrisTechnologiesandHanwhaAerospace.Thisplaceditsvaluationaround5.3billiondollars.
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