In the early days of 2026, nearly 20 AI startups based in the United States have successfully secured funding rounds exceeding $100 million, showcasing a vibrant landscape for innovation.
The initial weeks of this year hint at a promising trend, with AI startups in the U.S. having garnered over $76 billion in significant funding through large rounds in 2025, as reported by TechCrunch.
Will this momentum carry through 2026? Only time will reveal the answer.
Below is a list of U.S.-based AI startups that have raised $100 million or more so far:
February Highlights
- Simile secured a remarkable $100 million Series A funding led by Index Ventures, announced on February 12, with participation from Hanabi Capital and Bain Capital Ventures.
- Anthropic revealed a staggering $30 billion Series G funding round on February 12, elevating its valuation to $380 billion, with over 30 investors including Founders Fund and Coatue.
- The media generation platform Runway raised $315 million in Series E funding, bringing its valuation to $5.3 billion, with General Atlantic leading the round on February 10.
- Goodfire, an AI research lab, announced a $150 million Series B round on February 5, valuing the company at $1.25 billion, led by B Capital.
- AI research firm Fundamental raised $255 million in Series A funding on February 5, achieving a valuation of $1.4 billion with investors like Oak HC/FT and Salesforce Ventures.
- Voice AI innovator ElevenLabs announced a $500 million Series D funding round on February 4, led by Sequoia, valuing the company at $11 billion.
January Highlights
- PaleBlueDot AI, a compute platform, raised $150 million in Series B funding on January 28, achieving a $1 billion valuation, led by B Capital.
- Decagon, a conversational AI platform, announced a $250 million Series D round on January 28, co-led by Coatue and Index Ventures, valuing the company at $4.5 billion.
- AI research lab Flapping Airplanes raised $180 million in seed funding on January 28, led by Google Ventures, with a valuation of $1.5 billion.
- Baseten secured $300 million in Series E funding on January 23, achieving a valuation of $5 billion, led by IVP and CapitalG.
- Inferact, an AI inference startup, raised $150 million in seed funding on January 22, just months after its inception, with a valuation of $800 million.
- Cambridge-based OpenEvidence raised $250 million in Series D funding on January 21 for its medical AI chatbot, achieving a valuation of $12 billion.
- AI lab humans& announced a $480 million seed round on January 20, with notable investors like Nvidia and Jeff Bezos, valuing the startup at $4.48 billion.
- SkildAI raised $1.4 billion in Series C funding on January 14, achieving a valuation of $14 billion, led by SoftBank and Nvidia.
- Voice AI platform Deepgram raised $130 million in Series C funding on January 13, led by AVP, with a valuation of $1.3 billion.
- Arena, a large language model evaluation platform, secured $150 million in Series A funding on January 6, co-led by Felicis and UC Investments, with a valuation of $1.7 billion.
- Elon Musk's xAI made headlines with a $20 billion Series E round on January 6, with participation from Valor Equity Partners and Fidelity, before being acquired by SpaceX.
