Global startup funding shattered records in Q1 2026, reaching $297 billion, heavily fueled by massive investments in AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Crowdsourced AI model feedback startup Yupp.ai is closing its doors less than a year after launching with $33 million in funding from prominent Silicon Valley investors.

Global venture capital investment hit a record $189 billion in February 2026, with AI companies OpenAI, Anthropic, and Waymo accounting for the lion's share, according to a new Crunchbase report.

A wave of AI chip startups collectively raised more than $1.1 billion in venture capital, led by MatX's $500M round, as investors bet on alternatives to Nvidia's dominant GPU ecosystem.

As OpenAI nears a $100 billion funding round and Anthropic closes a $30 billion raise, at least twelve direct OpenAI investors — including Founders Fund, Sequoia, Iconiq, and BlackRock — have also backed Anthropic, shattering a longstanding venture capital conflict-of-interest norm.

OpenAI nears historic $100B+ funding deal with Amazon, SoftBank, Nvidia, and Microsoft, pushing valuation above $850 billion in AI industry's largest raise.

AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li's World Labs raises $1 billion from Nvidia, AMD, and Autodesk to develop spatial intelligence models that can perceive and interact with the 3D world.

Qualcomm announces a new Strategic AI Venture Fund with up to $150 million dedicated to supporting India's AI and deep tech startup ecosystem. The fund will target AI technologies across automotive, robotics, IoT, and mobile sectors through Qualcomm Ventures.

Anthropic leads with $30 billion Series G at $380 billion valuation as US AI startups secure massive funding rounds, with three companies crossing $1 billion.

AI startup Anthropic closes $30B Series G funding led by GIC and Coatue, achieving $380B valuation with $14B run-rate revenue growing 10x annually.

Modal Labs in talks with General Catalyst for new round at $2.5B valuation, reflecting surging investor interest in AI inference infrastructure.

Blackstone adds $200 million to its Anthropic stake, bringing total investment to $1 billion at a $350 billion valuation following Claude Opus 4.6 launch.

AI video generation startup Runway secures $315 million in Series E funding led by General Atlantic, nearly doubling its valuation to $5.3 billion as it shifts focus to developing advanced world models.

AI startup Anthropic raises double its initial target with $20B round led by Nvidia and Microsoft, valuing the company at $350 billion amid fierce competition.

Benchmark Capital commits $225 million to AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems in $1 billion Series H round, valuing the Nvidia rival at $23 billion ahead of Q2 2026 IPO.

Alphabet's Waymo secures $16 billion in funding at a $126 billion valuation, leading the week's largest funding rounds as it plans to expand robotaxi services to 20 new cities including Tokyo and London.

Fundamental raises $255M for Nexus, a Large Tabular Model that brings AI foundation model capabilities to enterprise structured data.

Seattle-based Overland AI secured $100 million in Series B funding led by 8VC to meet surging demand for its ULTRA autonomous tactical vehicles used by the US military. The company's technology enables off-road autonomous navigation in GPS-denied environments for dangerous combat engineering missions.

Major AI funding wave sees Waabi secure $1B for autonomous trucking, Decagon triple to $4.5B valuation, and PaleBlueDot AI reach unicorn status at $1B+.

Anthropic completes its latest funding round above $10 billion target at $350 billion valuation, with potential to reach $10-15 billion if Microsoft and Nvidia contribute.