This is not a difficult stat to unearth. So far this year, just seven companies raised more than half of all seed- through growth-stage investment. Theyā€™re mostly familiar names: , , (now part of ), , , and

These companies raised more than $260 billion in equity funding in the first 10 months of the year. Thatā€™s just over 50% of the U.S. seed and venture investment over the same period, per °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data.

Founders and CEOs of these seven companies are also well-known ā€” and exceptionallyĢż well-off to boot.

The worldā€™s wealthiest men

Two founders are particularly famous. They are the worldā€™s wealthiest men: and .

Musk founded xAI and The Boring Co., and also co-founded OpenAI, (though he has no known equity stake in the latter). And while outside investors funded these companies, Musk could have also afforded to do so himself.

Ditto for Bezos, who in 2025 launched the physical AI startup Prometheus, which raised $12 billion earlier this year. Bezosā€™ own net worth, meanwhile, is calculated at more than $350 billion.

AIā€™s leading names

The two highest valuation startups ā€” OpenAI and the soon-to-be-public Anthropic ā€” also have prominent billionaire founders and CEOs. However, they have mixed backstories to their wealth.

OpenAI co-founder and CEO primarily made his vast wealth through investments in startups, including and . Altman has said he in OpenAI beyond a sliver from an old YC round. Co-founder , by contrast, has a larger stake in OpenAI that was reportedly valued around $30 billion earlier this year.

At Anthropic, meanwhile, all seven company co-founders have similar-sized equity stakes, and each is worth billions. This includes the AI giantā€™s most famous co-founder, CEO .

Databricks, Anduril and others

Databricks and Anduril, meanwhile, both have founders serving as CEOs who have amassed billion-dollar-plus net worths during their tenures.

Databricks co-founder and CEO has a reported , with the company he leads valued at around $190 billion following an August financing.

Anduril co-founder and CEO , meanwhile, has an estimated $1.5 billion net worth as a result of his stake in the $61 billion valuation defense industry disruptor. Co-founder , who sold his virtual reality startup to for $2 billion in 2014 before starting Anduril, has an estimated $5.9 billion net worth.

Several other founders and CEOs of startups that raised some of this yearā€™s largest rounds are billionaires too. This includes founder , founder , and founder and CEO , among others.

Billionaire categories

We can split the billionaires who founded this yearā€™s most heavily funded startups into two broad subcategories. There are those who became billionaires through the startup that just raised capital. And there are those who were already billionaires through prior companies or investments.

Ghodsi, Amodei and Brockman fit in the first group. In the second group, of course, we can put Musk and Bezos, as well as Altman and Luckey, who became a following the Oculus sale.

Historically, neither billionaire type was a particularly common recipient of venture funding rounds. The term ā€œunicornā€ as a moniker for private companies valued at $1 billion or more only entered the lexicon in 2013, when this asset class became noticeably large. In prior decades, founders and CEOs mostly only hit billionaire status after their startups went public or sold in high-priced acquisitions.

Updating the venture archetype

But times change. And in tandem, our image of what a startup funding recipient looks like should evolve as well.

True, quite a bit of capital still flows to the stereotypical venture recipients: first-time founders or serial entrepreneurs whose prior companies didnā€™t make them fabulously wealthy. But a majority of venture funding now does not go to these classic startup types.

Instead, it goes to companies with valuations already high enough to warrant billionaire status for their stakeholders as well as ventures founded by men who are already billionaires.

Related reading:

• More Money, Fewer Checks: These 3 Charts Show The Divide Behind VC’s Record Funding Year
• The °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the weekā€™s Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last weekā€™s biggest funding deal roundup here.

This week featured a robust lineup of large rounds, led by manufacturing startup , which closed on $2.1 billion, and predictions marketplace , which picked up another $1 billion. Other sectors in which startups drew significant rounds included construction automation, biotech, batteries and enterprise AI.

1. , $2.1B, manufacturing: Re:Build, a manufacturing startup that partners with industrial companies and innovators from the product design phase to large-scale production, secured $2.1 billion in new funding. and led the financing for the 6-year-old, Framingham, Massachusetts-based company.

2. , $1B, predictions marketplace: Predictions marketplace Kalshi announced a $1 billion Series G financing led by and . The round set a $40 billion post-money valuation for New York-based Kalshi, which says its business’ annualized trading volume now exceeds $1 trillion.

3. , $600M, construction tech: San Francisco-based Bedrock Robotics,Ģż a developer of autonomous systems for heavy equipment used in construction, raised $600 million in Series C funding led by and . The round brings Bedrockā€™s total funding to nearly $1 billion and sets a post-money valuation of $4.1 billion.

4. , $350M, biotech: Dren Bio, a developer of antibody therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases, closed on $350 million in a new round led by and . The funding will support advanced trials for the San Carlos, California-based companyā€™s blood cancer therapies.

5. , $169M, battery tech: Woodinville, Washington-based Group 14 Technologies, a manufacturer and supplier of advanced silicon battery materials, picked up $169 million in Series D extension funding. The company also announced plans to expand into Europe with a production facility in Sagunto, Spain.

6. (tied) , $150M, defense tech: Firehawk Aerospace, a developer of propulsion technology, said it secured over $150 million in Series D funding at a valuation of more than $1.4 billion. and led the financing for the 7-year-old, Dallas-based company.

6. (tied) , $150M, enterprise AI: Serval, a startup focused on coding agents for enterprise automation, raised $150 million in Series C funding at a $3 billion valuation. led the round for the 2-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

8. (tied) , $100M, AI infrastructure: AI cloud provider General Compute picked up $100 million in Series A funding led by and . The company is building out its infrastructure using inference chips from rivals , and .

8. (tied) , $100M, autonomous factories: Emeryville, California-based Foundry Robotics, a startup focused on building and operating autonomous factories, closed on $100 million in a Series A funding round led by .

8(tied) , $100M, data analytics: Hex Technologies, a startup focused on building an AI-native platform for data analytics, secured $100 million in new financing. and led the round, which set a $1.2 billion valuation for the San Francisco-based company.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Oct. 24-30, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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But thatā€™s not all. As investment hit unprecedented levels in 2026, Golden State companies alone raised more than all U.S. startups in any prior year on record. Most of that stems from a handful of megarounds for San Francisco-based AI pioneers.

And keep in mind: This year still has a couple months left. Yet California companies have already pulled in an unparalleled $385 billion in seed- through growth-stage rounds. Thatā€™s more than double last yearā€™s tally.

Californiaā€™s share of U.S. startup funding also has been trending higher for the past three years. Much of this is due to San Francisco AI unicorns, but weā€™re also seeing strength in the broader Silicon Valley region as well as Southern California.

Where the money went

Flabbergasting financings for San Francisco-based and account for more than half of this yearā€™s California statewide tally. But even without those, California companies 1 still secured a disproportionate share of the largest U.S. equity funding rounds.

To illustrate, we used °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data to put together a list of the 10 next-largest California funding rounds this year.

Some of these are familiar names and involve fairly mature companies. For instance , which launched inside in 2009 and spun out as an independent company 10 years ago, picked up $16 billion in February.

Another old-timer is , which picked up $5 billion in August. Itā€™s now 13 years old and has raised over $30 billion in debt and equity funding to date.

Still, weā€™re also seeing younger companies secure megarounds. , the physical AI startup co-founded and led by and launched last year, pulled in $12 billion in new funding this spring. And AI model startup landed $5 billion in a -led round this summer.

Early-stage funding

That brings us to our next point. Californiaā€™s startup funding windfall isnā€™t only about late-stage and pre-IPO companies bagging enormous rounds. Early- and seed-stage companies are also attracting big checks from investors.

Per °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data, California companies have secured nearly $62 billion in seed- and early-stage financings so far in 2026. Thatā€™s roughly 57% of all U.S. funding at these stages.

Itā€™s also far above prior year tallies, as charted below, and appears to be a record funding level.

Donā€™t bet against California

If thereā€™s a lesson to be learned in these numbers, itā€™s one that savvy startup investors ought to have learned a long time ago: Donā€™t bet against California.

Whatever the year, whatever the technology cycle, California, and Silicon Valley in particular, have a knack for being home to the leading companies of the era.

Related °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ queries:

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Twenty-one of last monthā€™s new unicorns are U.S. headquartered. Six new unicorns joined the board from China and three from the U.K., while Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel, Italy, Finland, Germany and Bulgaria each added one new unicorn.

Through September, 311 companies have joined the board so far this year, putting 2026 on track to be the second-highest year for new unicorn creation, following only the venture peak year of 2021, when counts topped 600.

Several companies already on the board stand out for significant valuation increases via new raises last month. They include San Francisco-based , developer of AI for software engineering, which saw its value climb to $48 billion, up from $26 billion only four months earlier. Data center provider was valued at $31 billion last month, up from $10 billion a year ago. And Paris-based frontier lab was valued at $24.4 billion in its more recent funding, up from $13.7 billion a year ago.

New unicorns in September

Here are Septemberā€™s 38 new unicorn companies:

Semiconductors

• , an Austin-based semiconductor manufacturing startup, closed a $500 million Series A at a $3.7 billion valuation, led by . The 3-year-old company builds compact chip factories and develops their manufacturing equipment internally, aiming to make semiconductor production more accessible.
• , an Irvine, California-based semiconductor company, raised a $275 million Series C, valuing it above $3 billion and bringing total funding to $415 million. , and led the round. The 2-year-old company develops digital signal processing chips for high-speed optical connectivity in AI infrastructure.
• , a Hangzhou-based AI chip developer, announced a $149 million Series C. Its IoT inference chips combine memory and computing to reduce power consumption and data movement. The 5-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a Beijing-based AI chip company, raised $298 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion. The 4-year-old company develops AI computing chips using the open RISC-V architecture.

• , a San Jose, California-based developer of specialized AI chips and software, raised a $150 million Series C at a $1.45 billion valuation, co-led by and , bringing total funding to $500 million. The proceeds for the 8-year-old company will support its software platform and next-generation hardware for robots, vehicles and drones.

Financial services

• , a Texas-based prediction-market platform, announced a strategic partnership with , which will take an equity stake following OGā€™s separation from . The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $5 billion. The investment amount was not disclosed; the partnership will route Robinhood event-contract trading through OGā€™s regulated exchange and clearing infrastructure.
• Saudi Arabia-based , a digital payments company, raised a $329.5 million Series A at a $1.85 billion valuation. Investors included , and . The 3-year-old company has processed more than $117 billion in 2 years.
• , a Nevada-based financial software company, raised a $250 million Series E at a $1.43 billion valuation led by founder and chairman . The 8-year-old company provides an AI-based investment management platform for asset and wealth managers.
• , a Miami-based remittance platform for Latino immigrants operating through , secured $200 million in financing: an $87 million Series C equity round led by valued at $1.4 billion and $113 million in debt from ā€™s Customer Value Fund. The 5-year-old company plans to expand to lending and add to its Latin American reach.

Space technology

• Munich-based space company raised a $450 million Series C, co-led by , and at a valuation of $2 billion. The financing for the 5-year-old company will advance its reusable Nyx spacecraft for an International Space Station mission and support development of its Storm rocket engine.
• , a Seattle-based satellite connectivity company, raised a $200 million Series C at a $1.6 billion valuation, led by , bringing total funding to approximately $300 million. The 5-year-old company enables standard Bluetooth devices to connect directly to satellites for tracking and sensor-data applications.
• Oxfordshire, U.K-based , a satellite company, secured $346 million, co-led by and, valued at $1 billion. The 11-year-old company manufactures satellites and provides infrastructure, connectivity, Earth observation and intelligence services.
• Bulgaria-based , a satellite company, raised $205 million in a round co-led by and , reaching a $1 billion valuation. The 11-year-old company has raised financing that will expand standardized spacecraft production, including new manufacturing capacity in the U.S. and Europe.

Biotechnology and medical devices

• , a Framingham, Massachusetts-based developer of treatments for Alzheimerā€™s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, raised around $79 million. The Ģż 13-year-old company was valued at $1.9 billion. Investors were not disclosed.
• Shanghai-based , an AI drug discovery company, raised $290 million at a $1.5 billion valuation following its spinoff from . , , and co-led the round. Anew develops tools for biomolecular prediction and drug discovery; ByteDance retained a 56% stake.
• , a New York-based brain-computer interface developer, closed a $250 million Series D, bringing total funding to $430 million and reaching a valuation of approximately $1 billion. and led the round. The 5-year-old company is building a brainā€“computer interface that is minimally invasive and removable.
• Toronto-based , a biotechnology company, raised $153 million at a $1 billion valuation led by the , with participation from and other investors. The 3-year-old company uses AI to identify abandoned drug candidates that could succeed under different treatment approaches. The financing will expand clinical development and support additional drug acquisitions.

AI and internet infrastructure

• , a San Francisco-based AI cloud infrastructure company, raised a $300 million Series B at a $3 billion valuation, led by . The 3-year-old company distributes AI inference workloads across different types of chips to improve performance and efficiency. It announced in March that its customers include one of the leading frontier labs.
• Helsinki-based , an AI cloud company, raised a $189 million Series B led by . The financing valued the 6-year-old company above $1 billion with total funding over $450 million. The company manages physical data centers along with its cloud platform.
• London-based , an internet infrastructure company supporting content delivery for large streaming, gaming and software companies, raised $570 million in its first external financing led by . The 15-year-old company was valued at $1.9 billion.

AI training

• , a San Francisco-based AI training-data company, raised more than $100 million led by at a $4 billion valuation, an eightfold increase from its valuation in September 2025. The 4-year-old company recruits and vets specialists who create training and evaluation data for AI developers. that participants included two frontier AI laboratories and two co-founders.
• , a San Francisco-based provider of expert-created AI training data, reached a $3.2 billion valuation in September, earlier, according to . The funding amount and lead investor were not publicly disclosed. The 1-year-old companyā€™s datasets capture professional reasoning in fields such as software engineering, law and finance. AfterQuery was part of the Winter 2025 batch.

Robotics and autonomous driving

• , the Shanghai-based operator of Helloā€™s robotaxi business, raised about $100 million at a valuation close to $3 billion. fund led the round. The financing to the 1-year-old company will support a 10,000-GPU computing cluster, AI model development and commercialization of Level 4 autonomous driving.
• , a Sunnyvale, California-based robotics perception company, raised a $165 million Series C at a $1.6 billion valuation, led by . Founded by former and engineers, the 5-year-old company combines custom chips, sensors and spatial software to help robots perceive their surroundings. The financing will accelerate deployments across logistics, manufacturing and inspection applications.

Health insurance

• , a San Francisco-based health benefits company, announced a $200 million Series C at a $2.7 billion valuation. led the financing. It also includes $400 million in secondary financing for existing investors. The 7-year-old company provides a benefits platform using AI to make healthcare more affordable for small and midsize employers. The company services 5,000 businesses.
• , a San Francisco-based health benefits platform, raised a $108 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation. Investors included , , and . The 5-year-old company helps employers provide individualized health budgets for employees to select their own medical plans.

Energy and EV infrastructure

• China-based , a battery-swapping and charging company, agreed to a strategic transaction that gives a 30% stake. Geely will contribute its Yiyi battery-swapping operation and a $95 million investment. The 9-year-old company was valued around $2.4 billion.
• , an Austin-based developer of off-grid power systems for AI data centers, raised a $120 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation, led by . The less than 1-year-old company builds modular systems for renewable energy and battery systems as data-center operators seek access to electricity.

AI applications

• raised $150 million led by , at a valuation just over $2 billion. The 3-year-old company, headquartered in London with offices in Los Angeles and Mumbai, built an enterprise audiovisual content platform for media, advertising, sports and healthcare customers. The financing will support research, commercial expansion and a larger Silicon Valley presence.
• , a New York-based AI ranking and personalization company, raised a $90 million Series B at a $1.44 billion valuation, led by . The 2-year-old companyā€™s software helps enterprises respond to customer behavior in real time, improving the relevance of recommendations.

Cybersecurity

• Rome-based , a cybersecurity company protecting connected devices and autonomous machines, raised $270 million at a $1.7 billion valuation, led by . The financing to the 8-year-old company will support U.S. and Asia-Pacific expansion and development of AI security models.
• Tel Aviv-based , a consumer cybersecurity company, raised $40 million at a $1.1 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $167 million. co-founder joined existing investors including and , among others. The 8-year-old company protects consumers against phishing, scams, malicious websites and AI-generated fraud.

AI models

• Beijing-based , a language-model startup, raised $120 million reaching a valuation of $1.4 billion. Investors include , , and . The less than 1-year-old company raised $400 million across three rounds so far this year, before releasing its first public model.
• , a San Francisco-based developer of open-weight foundation models, announced a $150 million Series B led by , and , valuing the company above $1 billion. The financing will support the 3-year-old companyā€™s Trinity models and products for customizing and operating them.

Manufacturing and construction software

• , an AI company for manufacturing with dual headquarters in Tokyo and Chicago, raised a $114 million Series D at a $1.2 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $234 million. Investors included and . The 9-year-old companyā€™s platform organizes design and procurement and production; the financing will deepen its technology and accelerate North American expansion.
• , a Georgia-based construction software company, secured a growth investment of $250 million led by , valuing it above $1 billion. The 17-year-old company manages construction projects, with the investment supporting its AI capability build out and commercial growth.

Defense technology

• , a Washington, D.C.-based defense company, emerged from stealth with $250 million raised across three rounds at a valuation above $1 billion. The 2-year-old company develops long-range cruise missiles with manufacturing in Texas, Germany and Israel. Backers who have led across three rounds include , , , 1, and .

Food

• , the New York-based parent of consumer food brands David Protein and HallPass, raised a $250 million Series B at a $2.25 billion valuation. and co-led the round. The financing to the 2-year-old company will expand retail distribution, develop new products and support additional brands.

Related °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ unicorn lists:

• (1,901)
• (666)
• (321)
• (198)
• (119)
• (102)
• (998)
• (547)
• (258)
• (39)
• (489)

Related reading:

• °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ Data: Q3 2026 Posted A Record Count Of Billion-Dollar Rounds As The Global AI Race Heats Up
• 29 Companies Joined The °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ In August, Led By AI Software And Semiconductors

Methodology

The °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations ā€” such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options ā€” as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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Historically that wasnā€™t the case. But more recently, startup investors are putting more capital to work around these themes.

Over the past year, venture backers have poured close to $3 billion into good-sized rounds for marine-related startups in sectors ranging from defense tech to clean energy, per °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data. Top areas for investment include autonomous sea vessels, water robots, electric watercraft and ocean data.

Lead fundraisers

A single company ā€” ā€” accounts for most of the past yearā€™s haul. The Austin-based startup, which develops autonomous sea vessels and counts the as a key customer, secured $1.75 billion in Series D funding in March.

The round, led by , set a $9.25 billion valuation for 4-year-old Saronic, which is scaling at a fast clip. The company announced this summer that it plans to invest more than $3 billion to build a next-generation shipyard in Brownsville, Texas, focused on software-defined shipbuilding and autonomous maritime systems.

China-based , a developer of marine robotics technology, was a distant second for equity fundraising. The 3-year-old startup closed on a $150 million Series A round in July backed by a long list of venture investors.

In third place, meanwhile, is Rhode Island-based , a developer of vessels called Seagliders that operate just over the water at the speed of an aircraft. The 6-year-old startup picked up $120 million in Series B equity funding in August led by maritime-focused investor and , plus an additional $120 million in debt financing.

Overall, °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data showed quite a few maritime-focused startups funded in roughly the past year that have raised significant capital to date. To illustrate, below we put together a sample list of 27 that fit this criteria.

Top investors

Several investors have assembled particularly prolific portfolios of companies focused on the seas.

Among generalist VCs, one standout is , a backer in three companies on our sample list: Saronic, electric-boat maker , and , a developer of small, autonomous craft for undersea environments. In its April Series A lead investment in Ulysses, the firm pointed to promoting U.S. naval supremacy as an investment theme, along with reengineering technologies first envisioned on land to also work at sea.

is another generalist that has emerged as a marine startup serial investor. The firm has backed three companies on our list: Regent, , a builder of battery electric cargo ships, and , a developer of renewable energy systems in the ocean.

Besides cross-sector venture investors, °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data also shows a growing array of specialized firms with multiple maritime startups in their portfolios. This includes , focused on startups reducing emissions from boats and ships, and , a marine-focused investor with Pentagon backing.

Autonomy, AI and robots

While the sea may be exotic terrain for venture dealmaking, in many ways maritime funding fits pretty cleanly into prevailing investment trends.

Perusing the sample list of funding recipients from the past year, for instance, three sectors account for the vast majority of funding: autonomy, AI and robotics. Notably, these are core areas of strength for venture investments tied to land and space as well.

Moreover, a hefty chunk of marine investment also has defense tech applications. This coincides with the sharp rise overall in recent quarters in venture investment in startups with military applications.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether venture investorsā€™ enthusiasm will continue for what looks to be a capital-intensive space to scale. For now, however, marine-focused startups are managing to convince backers they can do a lot more than just stay afloat.

Related °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ list:

Related reading:

• Sector Snapshot: Defense Startup Funding Hits An All-Time Record As VCs Begin To Eye Exits

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From January through August U.S. tech layoffs reached at least 94,046, up 16.8% from 80,486 in the same period of 2025. Interestingly, and unsurprisingly, many of the cuts came as tech companies redirected spending toward AI and restructured operations to reduce costs.

The year started off on a busy note on the layoff front. After job cuts dropped sharply in December 2025 to 5,151, they surged in January to over 20,000. May was particularly brutal. The month drove the year-to-date increase, recording 31,513 layoffs ā€” including ā€™s 8,000-job reduction ā€” the highest monthly count since March 2023, when layoffs reached 36,602.

Recent months indicate a slowdown. Layoffs fell each month after May, reaching 2,347 in August. Overall, June-August 2026 layoffs totaled 19,331, down 16.2% year over year. The decline suggests recent easing, though it is too early to establish a lasting reversal.

Artificial intelligence has become a much more common explanation for layoff decisions, noted , founder of AI was cited in 33% of tech layoff events this year, up from just 1% in 2024. His tracker attributes 92,913 layoffs globally, or 72% of this yearā€™s total, to AI.

ā€œThereā€™s been little evidence that AI is actually replacing the work of the human employees let go,ā€ Lee said of this yearā€™s largest AI-attributed layoffs. He believes established tech companies are spending heavily on AI and cutting costs elsewhere, hoping to increase productivity with smaller workforces.

Companies cutting

This year, weā€™ve seen a number of Big Tech and publicly traded companies, as well as startups, make deep cuts.

But interestingly, as with last year, public tech companies have dominated layoff headlines in 2026 so far, led by and Meta.

ā€œBig companies [have] made up about 87% of everyone laid off in 2026, which is similar to last year, when they made up 85%,ā€ Lee said.

Amazon accounted for 17,388 cuts this year so far through August. Those included a 16,000-worker RIF announcement in January and several smaller subsequent rounds. Meta was next with 10,400 layoffs, including an 8,000-job reduction carried out in May that represented 10% of its workforce.

and recorded the next-largest totals, letting go of 4,800 and 4,760 employees, respectively. , and each recorded 4,000 layoffs, followed by with 3,000, with 2,900 and with 2,600. Notably, the Top 10 list spans a variety of sectors, including cloud computing, social media, payments and enterprise technology.

We should also note that according to reports, ā€™s workforce fell by about 21,000 employees in its fiscal year ended May 31, 2026, but the worker count and exact timing for each ofĢż those reported cuts was unclear, so we did not include that total in our tracker.

Among privately held companies in the tracker, recorded the largest disclosed total at 1,000, followed by HR software provider with 950 and with 500. Those figures were substantially smaller than the largest public-company reductions, although undisclosed layoff counts limit comparisons between the two groups.

And in early September, reportedly laid off 3,300 workers, or 10% of its workforce.

An AI focus

, of , says AI is affecting jobs in two ways. Some work, including coding, can now be done with fewer people. ā€œThere are jobs that are literally being replaced by artificial intelligence,ā€ he told °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ News.

But companies are also changing their priorities. Theyā€™re putting more money into AI and cutting teams working on other parts of the business. ā€œTheyā€™re letting people go from one area of their organization while they might even be hiring in an area that is focused on AI,ā€ Challenger said. Thatā€™s why a company may lay people off and advertise new jobs at the same time.

Tech has announced more job cuts than any other industry this year, Challenger said. Across the U.S. economy, layoffs are down somewhat from last year, though that comparison is skewed by the large number of federal job cuts in 2025. When compared with the period just after the pandemic, when employers struggled to find workers, layoffs remain elevated.

Few companies outside tech have blamed job cuts on AI so far, Challenger said.

Itā€™s not all negative though, in his view. There’s potential upside for programmers, he said. If AI makes software less expensive to build, companies in other industries might embark on projects they couldnā€™t afford before. That could mean new jobs outside tech, though itā€™s too early to know whether those jobs will make up for the ones being cut.

Also, it appears that some companies might be regretting their layoff decisions. Amazon is reaching out to eligible former employees about open roles across the company, including in its cloud-computing and AI businesses, according to aĢż report.

Methodology

Layoffs figures are from The °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ Tech Layoffs Tracker, where we record reported job cuts at U.S. tech employers. The tracker includes layoffs conducted by U.S.-based companies or those with a strong U.S. presence ā€” both privately and publicly traded ā€” and is updated at least bi-weekly. Layoff and workforce figures are best estimates based on reporting. Actual layoff figures are likely much higher than reported as many companies do not disclose the number of jobs cut when announcing layoffs. For more about our methodology for tracking layoffs, refer to the trackerā€™s methodology section.

Related reading:

• The °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ Tech Layoffs Tracker

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A decade ago, Espahbodi co-founded aerospace and defense startup accelerator and moved back to the U.S. to expand it. On the advice of friends at , he opened an office in El Segundo, California, near , just as more alumni of that company were leaving to launch hard-tech startups of their own and next-generation defense startups including were emerging.

Espahbodi eventually sold his stake in Starburst and launched , which invests in companies spanning industrial infrastructure, manufacturing, energy and water desalination. The firm has backed 14 companies since making its first investment in January 2023.

He also advises federal agencies on working with nontraditional, venture-backed companies. In an interview with °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ News, he discusses how AI is changing hardware economics, why software investors are rushing into industrial technology, and what he believes many of them misunderstand about the sector.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

°µĶų³Ō¹Ļ News: What led you to leave Starburst and launch Generational Partners?

Espahbodi: About four years ago, I noticed that my friends from SpaceX were leaving the space vertical and moving horizontally across physical industries. I reached an inflection point: I didnā€™t want to remain locked into the space sector. I wanted to follow my friends.

I sold my equity in the accelerator, and part of the investment team left with me to start Generational Partners. For the past four years, weā€™ve invested in what you might call the SpaceX-mafia and hard-tech sectors ā€” anything involving industrial infrastructure, manufacturing, energy or water desalination.

We made our first investment in January 2023, in a North Dakota-based drone company. It was a trial by fire and an opportunity to prove the thesis. Weā€™ve invested in 14 companies since then.

You were already investing in physical, safety-critical industries before the generative AI boom. Has AI materially changed where you invest, or has it mainly reinforced your existing thesis?

Espahbodi: I tend to arrive earlier than others. I embraced the idea that hardware does not have to be capital-intensive. People often confuse hard tech with deep tech, but nomenclature aside, you donā€™t need to invest in science to win in these categories.

AI has dramatically changed that narrative and encouraged more people to get on board. Iā€™m not looking to invest in science. I donā€™t necessarily see opportunities in quantum computing, nuclear fusion or other technologies being spun out of laboratories.

People who worked at companies such as SpaceX, and laid their companiesā€™ foundations digitally. AI has significantly improved that augmentation and performance, enabling these companies to tackle legacy industries more aggressively and, more importantly, with new business models.

Another major component of the AI question is that frontier labs have become more expensive and capital-intensive than traditional hardware companies. The success of frontier AI labs, combined with the SpaceX IPO becoming an enormous wealth-creation event, creates a new environment. It raises questions about what is truly capital-intensive, what makes a product or its intellectual property defensible, and where companies are reengineering products around different business models.

Hardware has historically been capital-intensive, slower to commercialize and difficult to scale. Under what conditions does its technical defensibility compensate for those challenges?

Espahbodi: Fundamentally, it comes down to the business model. I look for creative software talent combined with commoditized hardware, significant customer demand and a new business model.

One of our portfolio companies was founded by the team that built the factory for user terminals. When you buy a retail Starlink antenna, these people built and scaled the assembly line that produced it at high volume.

While deploying those terminals globally to provide internet access, they observed that poverty often stemmed from a lack of access to clean water. They asked whether they could replicate the proliferated satellite-and-user-terminal architecture for edge water desalination.

Rather than investing in multibillion-dollar, nation-state infrastructure like that used by Gulf countries, they wanted to mass-produce every component in a vertically integrated stack. Their goal was to produce a cooler-sized device that could clean water at the point of need.

used a digital, software-based approach to build the bill of materials needed for mass manufacturing. AI is part of its business and operations, but the companyā€™s real innovation was inverting the infrastructure model and scaling it.

I helped Vital Lyfe win its first customers within the and . Those organizations can use its devices in the field rather than shipping pallets of bottled water by air freight. That created a signal for overseas partnerships and nonprofit humanitarian-aid applications. It showed that there could be a different way to provide clean water.

Those are the kinds of unique business models that excite me.

What other companies founded by SpaceX alumni demonstrate how hardware businesses can overcome the traditional challenges of the sector? What can these founders build today that would have been difficult five years ago?

Espahbodi: Another example is the team SpaceX recruited to build the autonomous drone ships that catch boosters in the middle of the ocean. The team included former Coast Guard personnel and oil-and-gas technicians.

At SpaceX, they had the freedom to use software and AI tools to automate station-keeping ā€” the ability of those drone ships to position and navigate themselves and reach the right location.

That team spun out and brought in many former colleagues to change commercial maritime shipping. They retrofit legacy boats operating in harbors and waterways and move supply-chain goods.

They brought a digital-first foundation to automating the controls on tugboats and barges. That had never existed before because the communications link to those ships didnā€™t exist. Starlink changed the concept of operations. The company can use its software expertise to change how physical devices operate aboard these boats and allow their sensors to send signals anywhere in the world.

That makes it possible to retrofit and overhaul how legacy shipping vessels navigate harbors and waterways in the U.S. Itā€™s another example of SpaceX alumni applying the playbook and technologies they learned at SpaceX to a much broader commercial industry.

Youā€™ve said AI is eroding traditional software moats. What evidence are you seeing that investors are responding by moving into hardware and industrial technology?

Espahbodi: I meet many software investors who feel theyā€™re missing out on hardware but donā€™t necessarily understand it. Iā€™ve met beauty investors who now say theyā€™re defense-tech investors.

Los Angeles is a hotbed of firms that historically invested in software, media or consumer packaged goods. But people forget that Southern California, particularly El Segundo, is the aerospace capital of the world and has the largest concentration of mechanical-engineering talent.

Across the region ā€” from China Lake to San Diego ā€” technicians, builders and vocational talent are intersecting with the democratization of software and access to AI tools. Many local VCs have never taken advantage of the hardware talent located around them, so theyā€™re being thrown for a loop.

Ironically, Bay Area VCs have been among those leaning most heavily into this. But itā€™s happening everywhere. Iā€™m in Washington, D.C., now, and one of the first investors in , the hypersonic missile company, was in Virginia ā€” before and others became involved.

Los Angeles VCs in particular know there is a talent war underway and that many people are leaving established companies to launch new businesses in these categories. But they struggle to underwrite those deals. They donā€™t know how to distinguish a strong opportunity from fear of missing out or something merely cosmetic.

So investorsā€™ lack of experience in the space isnā€™t deterring them from writing checks or competing for deals?

Espahbodi: You have to ask why. The answer is their limited partners.

Sophisticated allocators, such as endowments, foundations and pension funds, along with more FOMO-driven family offices and high-net-worth investors, are watching this wave of SpaceX, and Anduril alumni create new companies and raise extraordinary rounds.

Many of those companies are no longer raising solely to pursue intellectual property. Theyā€™re building war chests to acquire other companies. The lines between private equity and venture capital are blurring. VC-backed companies are doing private equity-style buyouts, while venture deals are bringing in private equity checks.

That leaves LPs pushing for more. The success of the frontier AI labs has also perpetuated a fear of a ā€œSaaS apocalypse,ā€ which I donā€™t think is real ā€” although I sometimes question ā€™s 1Ģżstock price for fun.

It creates what venture does best: tourists and FOMO. LPs ask why their managers arenā€™t investing in the same companies and how they can participate, raise more money and show that they arenā€™t missing out. Thatā€™s how Iā€™ve seen investors unfamiliar with these sectors enter the market.

Some of the largest Silicon Valley firms … missed this dynamism wave. Now theyā€™re leaning in hard, sometimes at ridiculous valuations for companies that have yet to produce anything.

If more venture funding continues to flow into defense, aerospace and industrial technology, what prevents hardware from developing the same problems software experienced, including too many competing companies?

Espahbodi: Bring it on ā€” hard and fast, and as much as possible.

Venture as a category exists because it was always about hardware. I would argue that the SaaS era, from the dot-com boom until now, was a blip compared with what venture was originally intended to underwrite.

I would move away from the hardware-vs.-software distinction and ask who is reframing the business model. Is there a way to reengineer a combination of software and hardware to unlock customer value? Thatā€™s the more important question.

How important is geography for these startups? Does locating near a major government customer help a company win contracts, and how do startups navigate procurement if they arenā€™t based near Washington, D.C.?

Espahbodi: Itā€™s a common misconception that Washington is where the money is. The Los Angeles Air Force Base houses , which is another way of saying it holds ā€™s wallet. El Segundo makes the purchasing decisions for the fastest-growing portion of the military budget.

Washington is a place of considerable activity that needs to be influenced. Venture has never had this degree of influence on an administration and its executive orders. Weā€™re also seeing portfolio companies backed by influential investors win government contracts worth as much as $1 billion at a time. Thatā€™s extraordinary.

Geographically, companies need to be where the talent is as much as where the customers are. Government customers should signal what matters, but companies shouldnā€™t organize themselves entirely around the government.

My catchphrase is that I want everyone to be commercially focused but mission-aware. I donā€™t want them to be mission-focused on the government. I want government to signal what it cares about while companies remain commercially focused.

The talent war for this convergence of hardware and digital technology is centered in Southern California. If you arenā€™t building and recruiting there, youā€™re falling behind. I like that the Bay Area is trying to attract more hardware talent and capitalize on the automotive and humanoid-robotics markets.

But I think the talent base for the factory of the future starts in Southern California and can then be used as a model for expansion into other places, as companies such as Anduril have done in Ohio and Louisiana.

We invested in a company founded by people from SpaceX and . They immediately moved to Austin to build a smart factory for raw-material processing. They wanted to automate the process at its source.

The largest concentration of cotton farming is around Lubbock in the Texas Panhandle. The company is building automated factories from the ground up to mill cotton into yarn and then complete the digital, vertically integrated stack by producing textiles at prices that beat outsourcing to China, Vietnam and other countries.

It sounds crazy, but the founder is determined to do it. If you can prove the model in textiles, you can apply it to copper. If you can do it with copper, you can do it in pharmaceuticals. From there, it could go in any direction.

Do startups located near Space Systems Command have an advantage?

Espahbodi: Not for that reason alone. The advantage is that theyā€™re part of the ecosystem and geography. Theyā€™re spending time in the same bars and restaurants, and their children attend the same schools. Theyā€™re witnessing the same velocity.

Space Force itself is facing greater demand than ever to protect assets in space. Whatever happens with funding for individual programs, it remains the fastest-growing portion of the Pentagon budget.

I donā€™t think startups should locate there solely to be close to the customer. They should be there for the talent they need to build.

Related °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ queries:

Related reading:

• Sector Snapshot: Space Tech Startup Funding Orbits New Highs
• Sector Snapshot: Defense Startup Funding Hits An All-Time Record As VCs Begin To Eye Exits

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U.S. venture-backed technologyĢż1 companies have secured nearly $90 billion in domestic public offerings this year, per °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data. Thatā€™s already the second-highest annual tally on record, and weā€™ve still got a few months to go.

However, virtually all the money went to two companies. alone accounted for 83% of the $90 billion raised this year, while AI infrastructure company scooped up another 6%. A potential offering from , meanwhile, could be even bigger.

The remaining field is comparatively modest. Just 21 other venture-backed technology companies went public this year in sizable or offerings 2, per °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data. Collectively, their offerings, which include traditional IPOs and SPAC deals, pulled in less than $10 billion.

This small cohort is intriguing for what it excludes as well as what it includes. Enterprise software, long a staple industry among venture-backed IPOs, was essentially a no-show this year. Energy, defense and space tech, by contrast, were well-represented. We also saw smaller offerings from other sectors, including medical devices and consumer-facing startups.

Here are some of the key findings in more detail:

Energy powers the most IPOs: About a quarter of this yearā€™s tech startup offerings hail from the energy sector. The largest of these was from geothermal energy provider . Several nuclear power-focused startups also made their debuts, including and , developers of small modular nuclear reactors, as well as , focused on advanced nuclear fuel.

A dash of quantum, defense, aerospace, devices and consumer: Beyond energy, quantum computing company delivered one of the yearā€™s larger debuts, as did equipment rental platform . Defense tech and aerospace were also strong performers, with offerings from satellite intelligence provider and spacecraft developer . And on the consumer front, e-bike and scooter platform finally made its market entrance, albeit at a valuation below its one-time .

An IPO SaaS-pocalipse: But what about SaaS? Mostly MIA. The paucity of enterprise software offerings this year isnā€™t entirely surprising given the impact of AI on the sector. VCs are pouring capital into a newer generation of AI-first platforms in legal tech, accounting and other enterprise software sectors. Existing SaaS unicorns are also moving fast to incorporate more AI in their offerings.

One end result is there are an awful lot of SaaS unicorns and former unicorns that have concluded this year is not the time to pursue an IPO.

Winner-takes-almost-all

Another end result is that investment returns are looking more concentrated than ever.

Of course, winning big or not at all is far from a new thing in the startup world. Tech venture returns have always been propped up largely by a few enormous wins, with the remainder of portfolio companies producing either losses or smaller profitable exits. But lately, the winner-take-almost-all-the-IPO-proceeds tilt is more pronounced than ever.

The pipeline of tech companies that have filed for future IPOs doesnā€™t offer much consolation that this pattern will change. Giant potential market debuts from Anthropic and still dominate IPO chatter. Enterprise SaaS offerings do not.

Related °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ query:

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the weekā€™s Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last weekā€™s biggest funding deal roundup here.

It was a monster week for U.S. startup funding, with four companies each raising $1 billion or more. ā€™s tunnel-drilling company led with a $3 billion Series D, followed by AI coding startup at $2 billion. Joining them near the top was , which landed $1.3 billion for its AI platform for physical operations, while reusable rocket developer raised another $1 billion.

Big checks also flowed to U.S. solar manufacturing, defense tech, legal AI and companies building the chips and networking infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence.

1. , $3B, transportation and infrastructure: Muskā€™s Bastrop, Texas-based tunneling company raised a $3 billion Series D led by the, with participation from investors including, and. The company is developing underground tunnel networks designed to move passengers and vehicles while reducing surface traffic, and already operates its Vegas Loop system beneath Las Vegas. The latest deal values it at $23 billion and brings its total funding to nearly $3.9 billion, .

2. , $2B, artificial intelligence: San Francisco-based Cognition raised a $2 billion Series E led by,,, and. The company is best known for Devin, its autonomous software-engineering agent, and is part of a highly funded crop of startups betting AI agents will take over increasingly complex coding and development work. Cognition has raised nearly $3.9 billion to date and was valued at $48 billion in the latest round, our shows.

3. , $1.3B, AI for physical operations: San Francisco-based Motive raised $1.3 billion in private equity funding led by. The company, formerly known as KeepTruckin, has an AI-driven platform used by trucking, construction and other physical-economy businesses to manage fleets, monitor driver safety, and automate operations and spending. The latest deal brings Motiveā€™s total funding to just over $2 billion, according to .

4. , $1B, aerospace: Kent, Washington-based Stoke Space raised a $1 billion Series E co-led by and, with among the additional investors. The company is developing fully reusable rockets, including its Nova launch vehicle, as it looks to lower the cost of transporting satellites and other payloads to orbit. The latest round values Stoke at $10 billion and brings total funding to . Its raise adds to the already record-setting sums for space tech startup investment this year.

5. , $835M, solar energy: Norcross, Georgia-based Suniva raised $835 million from investors including, and. The longtime U.S. solar manufacturer produces high-efficiency solar cells and plans to use new capital to expand domestic production, including a new South Carolina facility that would more than quadruple its manufacturing capacity. Suniva has raised nearly .

6. , $600M, defense tech: Huntington Beach, California-based Mach Industries raised a $600 million Series C from investors including and. Founded in 2022, the defense manufacturer develops unmanned aircraft, long-range weapons, propulsion technology and the infrastructure needed to produce defense systems at scale. Mach is part of a broader surge in venture investment into defense companies looking to bring Silicon Valley-style development and manufacturing speeds to military hardware. The latest round values the company at $3.7 billion and brings its total funding to .

7. , $550M, legal AI: San Francisco-based Harvey raised a $550 million Series H co-led by and, with investors including and also participating. Harvey builds generative AI tools for lawyers and other professional-services workers, with products for legal research, document analysis and contract work. The company was valued at $15.5 billion in the latest deal, which brings its total funding to date to nearly . That makes it one of the most well-funded players in the legal tech space, which has seen robust investment this year, though slightly lower than last yearā€™s all-time high.

8. (tied) , $500M, semiconductors: Fab2 raised a $500 million Series A led by, with among the other investors. Formerly known as Atomic Semi, Fab2 is trying to rethink semiconductor manufacturing by designing its own fabrication tools, components and software with the goal of building smaller chip factories faster and more cheaply. The funding is the first disclosed round for the company, which maintains headquarters in California and Kentucky, and values it at $3.7 billion.

8. (tied) , $500M, AI infrastructure: Reno, Nevada-based Positron raised a $500 million Series C led by and, with among its other investors. The startup develops purpose-built hardware for AI inference, where models actually process queries after they have been trained, and is one of a growing crop of chip companies challenging GPUs in particular AI workloads. The latest financing values Positron at $5 billion and brings its total funding to nearly $1.2 billion, .

10. (tied) , $275M, AI networking infrastructure: Laguna Beach, California-based Celero Communications raised a $275 million Series C led by, and. Celero develops coherent digital signal processor technology that helps move enormous quantities of data between chips and data centers while using less power, an increasingly critical bottleneck as AI clusters grow. The round values the company at $3 billion and brings total funding to roughly , according to °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ.

10. (tied) , $275M, biotechnology: South San Francisco, California-based Encoded Therapeutics raised a $275 million Series F led by, with investors including, and also participating. The clinical-stage biotech develops precision genetic medicines for severe neurological disorders, with its lead therapy targeting Dravet syndrome, a rare genetic epilepsy. Encoded has raised $514.1 million to date, .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Sept. 5-11, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Related reading:

• Sector Snapshot: Space Tech Startup Funding Orbits New HighsĢż
• Anduril Raises Another $5B As Defense Tech Startups Shatter Funding Records
• Sector Snapshot: Legal Tech Funding Down Slightly From All-Time HighĢż
• Sector Snapshot: Semiconductor Startup Funding Still Running Hot

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The highest-valued new entrants were China-based humanoid robotics business , valued at more than $6.3 billion; San Jose, California-based photonics company , valued at $5.5 billion; and Palo Alto, California-based AI model platform , and San Franciscoā€™s semiconductor manufacturing startup , both valued at $5 billion.

AI software featured prominently across model training, assistants, agentic and enterprise workflow automation, coding and voice transcription.

Semiconductors was the second-largest sector, with five new unicorns. Robotics and financial services each added three, while data centers, security and energy each added two.

The U.S. accounted for 16 of Augustā€™s new unicorns. China followed with four. South Korea, India, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Germany and Turkey each added one. Nigeria and Indonesia also each added one new unicorn ā€” for both, their first new unicorn of the year.

Nine companies exited the °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ in August, per °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data: Three that went public ā€” the most notable being ā€” and six via acquisition, including , and .

New unicorns in August

Here are Augustā€™s new unicorn companies:

AI and software

• , a Palo Alto, California-based platform for training, fine-tuning and deploying custom AI models based on proprietary data, announced $1.1 billion in funding led by and . The less-than-1-year-old company, founded by former co-founder , was valued.
• San Francisco-based , an AI assistant that executes personal tasks, raised a $250 million Series B led by and . The 1-year-old company was valued at $2.5 billion.
• Shanghai-based , a builder of agents for digital and physical environments, raised a $220 million seed round led by and . The less-than-1-year-old company was valued at $2 billion. Its founder, , a researcher, left earlier this year.
• San Francisco-based , which builds AI-powered voice-writing and meeting-transcription tools, raised a $280 million Series B led by , who also led its Series A in 2025. The 5-year-old company was valued at $2 billion.
• San Francisco-based , which provides AI-powered code review and change-management tools, raised a $143 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation. and co-led the round. The 3-year-old company said it would commit more than $10 million to keep its tools free for open-source projects over the next year.
• San Francisco-based , which deploys AI agents across calls, email, documents and enterprise systems, raised a $150 million Series C at a $1.2 billion post-money valuation. and led the round. The company is 4 years old, started in logistics and has expanded to insurance, energy, telecommunications and airlines among others and counts 150 enterprise customers.
• Turkey-based , a developer of consumer mobile applications, raised a $50 million Series A led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1.25 billion. Its apps include AI chatbot Nova, diagnosing plants with PlantApp, and art generator DaVinci.

Semiconductors

• , a San Jose, California-based developer of photonic interconnects for AI computing infrastructure, raised a $700 million Series C at a $5.5 billion valuation. , , , and led the round. The 2-year-old company is already deployed within data centers.
• raised $400 million in funding led by hedge fund . The 1-year-old company was valued at $5 billion. The San Francisco-based company creates tooling for semiconductor manufacturing and was founded by researchers.
• South Korea-based , which develops edge AI processors for on-device inference, raised about $29 million in the first tranche of its Series D funding from existing investors. The 8-year-old company targeting robotics and electronics was valued at about $2.2 billion.
• Shanghai-based , an AI chip startup for inference, raised a Series A led by local state capital investors and . The 4-year-old company was valued at about $1.5 billion with plans to ship its product in Q4 2026.
• Santa Clara, California-based , which develops low-power silicon and software for AI data centers and physical AI, raised a $110 million Series A led by . The 4-year old company was valued at more than $1 billion.

Robotics

• China-based , which is building the general-purpose IRON humanoid robot, raised more than $900 million in its first outside financing at a post-money valuation exceeding $6.3 billion. led the round, with participation from and support from and Alibaba Group. The company, a subsidiary of public smart electric vehicle company , is 10 years old.
• Singapore-based , which develops robots to operate in real-world environments, raised about $669 million in funding. The 2-year-old company was valued at about $3.3 billion and is set to deploy robots in a Dairy Queen in Shanghai to handle the entire 55-step process of taking orders, preparing the food and handing it to a customer.
• Zurich-based , which develops autonomous technology for heavy construction machinery, raised a $200 million Series A led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion and works across multiple construction brands.

Financial services

• Bengaluru-based , a financial-services company spanning payment, lending and insurance, raised $100 million in funding led by . The 7-year-old company was valued at $1.3 billion.
• Berlin-based , a finance AI platform for European mid-sized businesses toĢż manage spend, card issuing and expenses, raised a $40 million Series C led by and . The 7-year-old company was valued at around $1.15 billion. The company says it has 5,000 businesses that use the service to give finance teams control.
• Palo Alto, California-based , an AI-native enterprise resource planning platform for accounting, raised a $100 million Series C led by . The 4-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.

Aerospace and defense

• Los Angeles-based , a manufacturer of autonomous military drones and counter-drone systems, raised a $250 million Series C at a $2.5 billion post-money valuation. and the co-led the round. The company is 3 years old. Neros has contracts with the U.S. military as well as half a dozen allied countries.
• Mountain View, California-based , which builds and operates satellite constellations for national security, civil and commercial customers, raised a $250 million Series C led by . The 5-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Data centers

• Palo Alto, California-based , a vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform, raised a $300 million Series A led by , , and . The less-than-1-year-old company was valued at $2.4 billion. Alongside the equity, Volta secured $5 billion in debt to fund data center buildouts.
• , a full-stack AI infrastructure and neocloud platform, received led by Doha-based broadband provider , which holds a 49% stake. Jakarta-based Zankore is less than 1-year-old and is valued at $1.6 billion. The platform is targeting 1 gigawatt of AI computing capacity.

Security

• San Francisco-based , an AI-native security company that provides autonomous penetration testing, raised a $250 million Series E led by and . The 7-year-old company was valued at $2 billion and is used by 7,000 organizations including defense, Fortune 10, banks and healthcare companies among others.
• Palo Alto, California-based , which provides security for AI agents and third-party applications, raised an $85 million Series D led by . The 9-year-old company was valued at $1.1 billion.

Energy

• China-based , a nuclear fusion company developing small modular reactors, raised about $179 million in seed funding. The 1-year-old company was valued at about $1.5 billion.
• Washington, D.C.-based , which develops software that adjusts AI data-center workloads based on power-grid demands, raised a $150 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation. and co-led the round. The 2-year-old company says the round brings total funding to more than $220 million.

Transportation

• Nigeria-based , a vehicle financing and autonomous fleet management infrastructure, raised a $250 million Series C led by , and . The 7-year-old company was valued at $2.1 billion. It operates a fleet of 42,000 vehicles ā€” both human-driven and autonomous ā€” across 29 cities, with annual recurring revenue of $420 million.Ģż

Critical minerals

• Houston-based , which builds mines and refineries using its MarianaOS software platform, raised a $310 million Series B led by . The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion.

Web3

• Dubai-based , an AI-enabled stablecoin neobanking platform for cross-border payments and tokenized assets, raised a $68 million Series C led by Tokyo-based at a $1 billion valuation. The 7-year-old company says it processes more than $40 billion in annualized transaction volume.

Related °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ unicorn lists:

• (1,862)
• (658)
• (276)
• (195)
• (119)
• (102)
• (961)
• (547)
• (254)
• (39)
• (489)

Related reading:

• Global Venture Funding Jumps 122% In August As Streak Of Billion-Dollar Deals Continues
• Which Investors Have Backed The Most 2026 Unicorns?
• 40 Companies Joined The °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ In July, The Highest Count In 4 Years

Methodology

The °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.Ģż

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations ā€” such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options ā€” as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.Ģż

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .Ģż

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.Ģż

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to °µĶų³Ō¹Ļ long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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