This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

Startups raised funding rounds with a lot of zeroes at the end this week. Three companies 鈥� , and 鈥� secured financings of $1 billion or more. Additionally, a robust lineup of companies in sectors including AI, e-commerce, cybersecurity, biotech and even mining also announced sizable new rounds.

1. , $1.37B, manufacturing: Hadrian, a developer of highly automated factories, raised $1.37 billion in Series D funding led by , , , , and . The financing sets a $7.87 billion valuation for the 6-year-old, Torrance, California-based company.

2. (tied) , $1B, energy storage: Austin-based Base Power, a developer of residential battery energy storage systems, secured $1 billion in Series D financing at a $13 billion post-money valuation. , , and led the financing, which coincided with the launch of the company鈥檚 Base Core home battery.

2. (tied) , $1B, nuclear power: Valar Atomics, a developer of technology and infrastructure to deliver nuclear energy, closed on $1 billion in Series B funding led by . The El Segundo, California-based company also secured a $200 million credit facility led by and .

4. , $700M, AI connectivity: Lumilens, developer of a connectivity platform for AI infrastructure, emerged from stealth and announced more than $700 million in new funding. , , , and led the financing for the San Jose, California-based startup.

5. , $545M, live shopping: Live shopping marketplace Whatnot bagged $545 million in Series G funding. The round reportedly a $20 billion valuation for the Los Angeles-based company, with , and as lead investors.

6. , $310M, critical minerals: Mariana Minerals, a software-focused developer of projects for supplying critical minerals, picked up $310 million in Series B financing led by . The 4-year-old company engineers, builds and operates mines and refineries using its software platform.

7. , $300M, AI infrastructure: Volta, a developer of AI cloud infrastructure, from stealth and said it raised a Series A at a $2.4 billion valuation, led by , , and .

8. , $250M, cybersecurity: San Francisco-based cybersecurity provider Horizon3, announced a $250 million Series E. and led the round, which set a valuation of more than $2 billion, triple the value set for its Series D last year.

9. , $188M, biotech: Watertown, Massachusetts-based drug discovery startup LifeMine Therapeutics secured $188 million in Series E funding led by . The funding will go toward clinical development of its lead program and advance its pipeline of transplantation and immunology therapies.

10. , $150M, agentic AI: HappyRobot, developer of an agentic AI platform geared for enterprises in sectors including logistics, financial services, utilities and manufacturing, raised $150 million in Series C funding led by and .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 兔子先生传媒 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Aug. 1-7. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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It is difficult to define the extent to which a specific company should morph itself into an “AI native” company. Does this add value for everyone?

AI does not automatically increase exit value. In some cases, it can reduce differentiation, compress margins, complicate diligence and make a company more difficult to acquire. Like pricing, customer service or go-to-market strategy, AI requires a careful balancing act between speed and defensibility, innovation and complexity, short-term productivity and long-term strategic value.

Let鈥檚 jump into three ways AI strategy can impact exit value.

Build an AI architecture that acquirers can trust

Many startups are rapidly adding AI copilots, model integrations, orchestration layers, prompt libraries, vector databases and third-party AI tools across the organization. This may accelerate product development and help teams ship faster. However, from the perspective of an acquirer, it can also create a more complicated architecture.

During due diligence, buyers care about how AI is being used. Which models are embedded in the product? Which vendors are critical to delivery? Where does customer data flow? How are outputs monitored? What happens if pricing changes, APIs break or regulation shifts?

A startup may see AI adoption as innovation. A buyer may see it as integration complexity, vendor dependency, compliance exposure and security risk.

This is especially important for strategic acquirers that need to integrate the target into a larger platform. If AI makes the product easier to scale, automate, secure and maintain, it can support valuation. If it creates a fragile layer of external dependencies, unclear data flows and difficult-to-audit decision-making, it may reduce confidence and lower the price a buyer is willing to pay.

Invest in proprietary data

Even one year ago, adding AI functionality to a product could create excitement by itself. Today, many AI features are becoming easy to replicate. Summarization, search, chat interfaces, recommendations, content generation and workflow assistance are increasingly available through the same underlying models and infrastructure. This matters for exits.

A strategic acquirer rarely pays a premium simply because a startup integrated the latest model. They pay for what they cannot easily build themselves: proprietary datasets, unique customer workflows, strong distribution, deep vertical adoption or network effects that improve with scale.

Founders should therefore ask a simple question: Is our AI strategy creating a defensible asset, or are we just adding features that competitors can copy within weeks or months?

Revisit your buyer map as AI redraws strategic boundaries

Historically, many companies built their exit strategy around a familiar buyer map. A cybersecurity startup might sell to a larger cybersecurity vendor. A vertical SaaS company might sell to a competitor in the same industry. A workflow automation company might sell to a productivity platform. AI is changing those boundaries.

As AI expands what platforms can do, strategic buyers are moving into adjacent markets they previously ignored. An infrastructure company may acquire an identity platform because AI agents need secure access controls. An ERP vendor may acquire workflow automation because AI is moving closer to business process execution. A data platform may acquire a vertical application because domain-specific data is becoming more valuable.

This means CEOs should revisit their buyer map every six to 12 months. The most logical acquirer today may not be the same one that would have been logical even one year ago.

is a strategic adviser to tech companies, investors, CEOs and boards, specializing in strategy, growth and M&A. He is a guest contributor to 兔子先生传媒 News and a university lecturer on strategy, finance and entrepreneurship. Learn more at and connect with him on .

Related 兔子先生传媒 query:

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July ranked as the third-largest funding month of the year, up 10% over June, following on the heels of a record-breaking first half of 2026, when startups raised $515 billion globally.

Fourteen startups raised billion-dollar rounds in July, the highest count in a single month, though not the largest amount raised in such deals, an analysis of 兔子先生传媒 data shows. The tally includes nine U.S.-based companies, two each from Germany and China, and one company headquartered in Singapore.

The largest startup funding deal last month was a $10 billion investment in , the first external financing for the -founded space exploration company.

, a frontier lab founded by former Chief Scientist , reportedly raised $5 billion from . The next two largest deals were Beijing-based frontier lab 鈥檚 $3.5 billion raise after releasing its latest Kimi K3 model, and raising $2.8 billion for short-video generation.

Two Germany-based companies in defense tech also raised billion-dollar rounds: and . In the U.S., companies that raised billion-dollar-plus rounds spanned the energy, industrial robotics, AI training, security and semiconductor industries.

Funding to AI

A total of $35 billion, or around 53% of global venture funding, went to AI-focused companies in听 July. Other leading sectors were aerospace, defense and energy.

U.S.-based companies raised a total of $39 billion, or around 59% of global venture capital, last month with roughly half of the capital invested in its AI-focused companies.

Exits

July was also a robust month for startup exits, including via acquisition and public-market debuts.

Venture-backed M&A totaled more than $9 billion in July, with five companies exiting at prices听 over $1 billion, 兔子先生传媒 data shows. Notable acquisitions included London-based data center provider 鈥檚 roughly $1.65 billion acquisition of software layer , which was built to manage AI workflows, and in the security sector, AI-native security company 鈥檚 $1 billion acquisition of , a service to manage non-human identities.

Twelve venture-backed companies went public above $1 billion in value in July, including five from China, six U.S.-based companies, and one from Italy. The largest was Chinese chipmaker , which went public at around $85 billion and . Italy-based , an acquirer of software companies including and , went public at a value of $18.5 billion. And last-mile transportation company , founded in 2017, went public at $1.6 billion in value, raising $167 million in the process.

In closing

If the first half of 2026 established that venture has entered a new era of mega-financings, July reinforced that the trend is broadening rather than fading. Record numbers of billion-dollar rounds in both hardware and software, alongside a healthy IPO and M&A market, point to an ecosystem where capital is not only concentrating in category leaders but is also beginning to recycle through exits.

Related 兔子先生传媒 queries:

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 兔子先生传媒, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Aug. 3, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 兔子先生传媒 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 兔子先生传媒 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 兔子先生传媒 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 兔子先生传媒 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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It鈥檚 a worry that spilled over into headlines last week, after an agent the open-source AI platform . Turns out rogue AI agents causing mayhem is no longer听 a hypothetical problem.

Seed investors apparently saw this coming, judging by the plethora of good-sized rounds for companies at the intersection of AI and security. Startups in this cohort have raised $855 million across more than 150 reported seed-stage rounds this year, per 兔子先生传媒 data. That puts investment on track for an all-time high.

A large cluster of deals in the $5M to $10M range

Here at 兔子先生传媒 News, we took a particular interest in seed rounds in the $5 million to $10 million range, an area where cybersecurity investment was particularly robust.

Why this size range? It started as a broader data dive focused on top themes for mid-sized seed rounds, an often overlooked subset in a startup funding climate dominated by AI megadeals.听

An initial perusal indicated cybersecurity warrants a standalone analysis. We found both a high number and a wide breadth of funded companies in the space, with missions ranging from identifying AI hallucinations to building adversary simulations to verifying agents in finance.

To illustrate, below is a sample list of 14 AI-focused security companies that raised seed financings this year in our target range.

Big seed and early-stage bets too

We also had some large rounds in the mix, indicating investors saw risk-reward compelling enough to write big checks for newly minted startups. Some of the biggest included:

• , a developer of identity intelligence technology for the AI era, secured $60 million in a seed financing this month.
• , a Silicon Valley startup working on an AI-native cybersecurity platform that doesn鈥檛 depend on the public cloud, raised $45 million in a March seed round.
• , an upstart developing an AI governance and security platform for enterprises, in March with $34 million in a seed round it described as massively oversubscribed.听

When investors place larger bets at seed, there鈥檚 usually at least one of two core reasons. The first is that the founder or founding team is impressive enough that backers are willing to invest primarily on the mission and people. The second is that the startup has demonstrated impressive traction with its earliest efforts.

For larger rounds, we鈥檙e seeing a number of the first category. Cylake鈥檚 founder and CEO, for example, is , founder of . JetStream, meanwhile, has drawn veterans of , and other security leaders.听

A solid year for overall security funding

Notably, the strong cybersecurity seed funding environment coincides with solid overall venture investment levels. In the first half of the year, per 兔子先生传媒 data, startups in the sector pulled in $10.6 billion in financing across stages, roughly in line with recent prior comps.

That said, seed may be where excitement is greatest. With hundreds of billions flowing into building AI infrastructure and applications in recent quarters, someone will have figure out innovative ways to keep myriad real-life and hypothetical AI security nightmares from coming true.听

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

Startup investors poured capital into a varied lineup of large rounds this week, targeting sectors including physical AI, biotech, cybersecurity, AI infrastructure and fintech. By far the largest financing of the week was a $1.7 billion round for founder 鈥檚 physical AI startup, , followed by sizable investments for 3D AI model developer and battery technology company .

1. , $1.7B, physical AI: Atoms, the physical AI startup founded by founder , raised $1.7 billion in a funding round led by . Kalanick touted the Los Angeles-based company鈥檚 vision as 鈥渁bout the coming industrial revolution where large industrial economic sectors get completely digitized.鈥�

2. , $400M, AI for 3D: Silicon Valley-based Meshy AI, a startup developing foundation models for AI-powered 3D generation, closed on $400 million in Series B funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. Lead backers include , and , per 兔子先生传媒 data.

3. , $300M, battery technology: Battery technology company Sila secured $300 million in a new round led by and . The Alameda, California, company will use the funding to expand its silicon anode plant in Moses Lake, Washington.

4. , $300M, inference technology: Etched, a co-designer of chips, racks, software and manufacturing methods for use in frontier models, picked up $300 million in Series C funding. led the round, which set a $10 billion pre-money valuation for the San Jose, California-based company.

5. , $180M, fintech: Augustus, a startup aimed at providing financial institutions around the world direct access to dollar accounts, secured $180 million in Series B funding. led the round, which set a $1 billion valuation for the San Francisco-based company.

6. , $160M, defense tech: Cathedral, a startup aimed at expanding U.S. military cyber capabilities, reportedly $160 million with backing from Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The Washington, D.C.-based startup was reportedly founded by a 鈥媡eam of former DOGE employees.

7. , $130M, biotech: Crystalys Therapeutics, a biotech developing therapies for people living with gout, closed an oversubscribed $130 million Series B round. led the financing for the San Diego-based company.

8. , $120M, healthcare software: San Francisco-based Candid Health, developer of a revenue cycle management platform for the healthcare industry, landed $120 million in Series D funding led by .

9. , $100M, cybersecurity: Glow, a Palo Alto, California-based AI-powered endpoint security startup, launched from stealth and announced it has raised $180 million to date, of which, per 兔子先生传媒, $100 million comes from its newest financing. Lead backers include Sequoia Capital, , , and .

10. , $75M, cybersecurity: Boston-based Neo Security, a startup working on an agentic software control platform for enterprises, picked up $100 million in a new round led by and Andreessen Horowitz.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 兔子先生传媒 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of July 18-24. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

Looking broader into the entire market, I can see how this makes a lot of sense. Companies are becoming increasingly uneasy about where critical infrastructure and sensitive data live. AI fraud is getting better. Voice cloning is becoming more convincing. Vibe coding is allowing less experienced developers to build faster, but not always more securely. Quantum computing is still over the horizon, but serious companies are already thinking about what it may mean for encryption and long-term data protection.

For the past decade, cloud migration was treated as the obvious strategy. It gave companies speed, scale and lower upfront costs. Startups could launch without buying servers. Enterprises could modernize without rebuilding their own infrastructure.

That logic still holds. But we are witnessing an interesting shift where progress is happening so fast, security cannot keep up, thus creating an uneasy feeling causing decision-makers to revert back to older, and perhaps safer perceived strategies.

Here are three trends that I believe are pushing on-prem back into the limelight.

AI fraud is changing the security conversation

In many cases, cloud providers are more secure than what a company could build internally. The issue is that thanks to AI, attackers are becoming more sophisticated, and quick. AI makes phishing more polished, fake invoices more believable, and voice impersonation harder to detect. A call that sounds like the CFO or CEO asking for a payment approval is no longer far-fetched.

That changes how companies think about exposure. The attack surface is not only servers. It is identity systems, SaaS tools, APIs, employee workflows, permissions, contractors and support portals.

For sensitive systems such as communications, payments, identity and customer data, control becomes more valuable. On-prem does not guarantee security. But it can reduce dependency on outside platforms and give companies clearer ownership over the systems they cannot afford to compromise.

Enterprise AI may favor private infrastructure

Cloud AI APIs are excellent for testing. A company can launch a pilot quickly without buying GPUs, managing models, or hiring a large infrastructure team.

But enterprise AI is moving into production. That changes both the economics and the risk.

The most useful enterprise AI applications require proprietary data: contracts, source code, customer records, financial reports, support tickets, security logs, medical files and internal communications. This is the data that gives AI business value. It is also the data companies are most careful with.

For these use cases, on-prem or private AI infrastructure becomes more attractive. The model can run closer to the data. Access can be controlled more tightly. Retention, compliance and audit requirements become easier to manage.

There is also a cost angle. Token pricing is convenient in a pilot, but expensive at scale. When thousands of employees or customers use AI every day, paying per query can become a serious recurring cost. For stable, high-volume workloads, owning or controlling the infrastructure may be cheaper than renting every interaction forever.

Quantum risk is making long-term data protection more strategic

Quantum computing is not breaking enterprise encryption today. But the risk is already part of serious security planning.

The concern is that the minute quantum becomes commercial, all encrypted data sitting in the cloud will be transparent. No existing encryption will hold against a quantum computer. That matters most for companies holding long-life sensitive data: banks, healthcare providers, telecom companies, governments, defense-related organizations and infrastructure providers.

Regardless of whether or not on-prem is the best solution for all this, it is perceived as such. Hence, I believe it will drive higher demand for the legacy on-prem strategy. This early shift is also an opportunity, but that鈥檚 for another article.

is a strategic adviser to tech companies, investors, CEOs and boards, specializing in strategy, growth and M&A. He is a guest contributor to 兔子先生传媒 News and a university lecturer on strategy, finance and entrepreneurship. Learn more at and connect with him on .听

Photo by on .

Those were the findings from an analysis of global funding for the first half of the year to companies in 兔子先生传媒 security- and privacy-related industry categories. Overall, startups in the cohort pulled in $10.6 billion in financing across stages, roughly in line with recent prior comps.

Slower in Q2

The first quarter of 2026 was a more robust period for funding than the second. Privacy and cybersecurity startups pulled in $4.4 billion in seed- through growth-stage financing in Q2. That marked a decline of around 30% from prior quarter and year-ago levels, with round counts falling by a similar magnitude, as charted below.

Given that the prior two quarters were particularly robust for cybersecurity funding, a moderate Q2 decline doesn鈥檛 look like a flashing warning sign. Moreover, the quarter did produce a sizable number of jumbo financings, including eight rounds of $100 million or more.

Standout fundraisers

The largest Q2 funding recipient was , a developer of AI-enabled enterprise security tools with a particular focus on AI agents. The New York company raised $600 million at a $12 billion valuation in a June round led by .

, a provider of an endpoint management platform, was another standout fundraiser, raising over $400 million in Series C extension financing. The investment set a $12.3 billion valuation for the Austin-based company.

, a 3-year-old Israeli startup that describes itself as an AI and cyber defense company for governments and critical infrastructure, also picked up a big round, closing on $260 million at a $3 billion valuation. For a broader view, below we list five of the quarter鈥檚 largest security-related financings:

Exits

In addition to scooping up funding, security startups also generated exits in Q2. While the IPO market was quiet, the quarter did bring a number of larger M&A deals.

The biggest of these straddled security and defense tech. That would be Chicago-based 鈥� planned acquisition of , an Israeli counter-drone technology company, for $1.5 billion.

The quarter also delivered multiple startup acquisitions valued in the hundreds of millions. To illustrate, below we charted four of the largest disclosed-price deals for Q2.

A mixed picture

Overall, the past few months have given cybersecurity startup investors and founders a case for optimism, but we aren鈥檛 seeing anything close resembling the hoopla and valuation escalation around foundational AI.

Still, there are some encouraging signs. Exits are happening. Big rounds are getting done. And as AI agents continue to proliferate, it鈥檚 a given we鈥檒l need more sophisticated security to monitor their activities.

Related 兔子先生传媒 query:

Related reading:

• 兔子先生传媒 Data: Global Startup Investment Hit Record $510B In H1 2026 As AI Boom Accelerates Funding And Exits

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

AI once again dominated venture funding this week, claiming five of the 10 largest announced rounds, including a pair of billion-dollar financings for AI infrastructure and cybersecurity that led the pack. Investors also continued to back quantum computing, geothermal energy, crypto infrastructure and aerospace startups with large checks. Let鈥檚 take a look.

1. (tied) , $1B, cybersecurity: Keyfactor raised a $1 billion private equity round led by. Other investors in the private equity round for the Independence, Ohio-based company included and . Keyfactor provides digital identity and machine identity management software that helps enterprises secure certificates, encryption keys and connected devices. It has now raised $1.21 billion to date, .

1. (tied) , $1B, AI infrastructure: Palo Alto, California-based SambaNova officially announced a long-awaited $1 billion Series F deal at an $11 billion post-money valuation led by. A of other investors joined the round, including ,,,,, and. SambaNova develops AI chips and enterprise AI infrastructure for training and inference workloads. The company has raised nearly $2.5 billion to date, .

3. , $300M, quantum computing: , and co-led a sizable $300 million Series A for South Pasadena, California-based quantum startup Oratomic. A of 16听 investors participated in the round, including , , , co-founder , and computer scientist . Oratomic is developing neutral-atom quantum hardware and fault-tolerant architectures designed to accelerate the commercialization of quantum computing, an area that has seen robust venture investment in recent years.

4. , $134M, clean energy: Houston-based Quaise Energy raised a $134 million Series B led by . Additional investors included , and. Quaise is developing millimeter-wave drilling technology to unlock deep geothermal energy, an emerging source of carbon-free power. To date, the company has raised $225 million.

5. , $130M, artificial intelligence: San Francisco-based Prime Intellect raised a $130 million Series A led by . A of investors 鈥� many of them prominent Silicon Valley figures 鈥斕齤oined, including CEO , 颁贰翱听 , co-founder , CEO and co-CEO . Corporate investors , and also backed the round. Prime is building an open platform for training and deploying AI models across distributed compute networks. It has now raised $200.4 million total, .

6. , $125M, crypto infrastructure: New York-based Gauntlet raised a $125 million Series B, with Japan鈥檚 as the sole investor. The company develops simulation, risk management and optimization software for decentralized finance protocols.

7. , $120M, artificial intelligence: New York-based Norm AI secured a $120 million Series C led by at a reported $1.2 billion valuation to expand its AI-powered regulatory compliance platform. The company develops AI systems that translate complex laws and regulations into software to help enterprises automate their compliance workflows. The latest funding included a long list of other venture, corporate and individual backers including , , , and , the chairman of and former president of , which also participated in Norm AI鈥檚 deal. The startup has now raised just over $256 million, .

8. , $91M, aerospace and defense: Aerospace continues to draw substantial investor attention, as was the case this week with Houston-based Venus Aerospace鈥檚 $91 million Series B. backed the round, which will be used to advance development of Venus鈥� hypersonic propulsion technology. The company is building engines and aircraft designed to dramatically reduce long-distance flight times while supporting future defense applications. It has now raised $197 million total. An of investors joined in its Series B, including , , , and .

9. , $76M, fintech: Digital asset exchange EDX Markets raised $76 million as institutional interest in crypto trading infrastructure continues to grow. The deal was backed by sole investor , marking the second large crypto funding deal for the Japanese firm this week, along with Gauntlet鈥檚 aforementioned round. EDX operates a marketplace designed specifically for institutional investors. It鈥檚 not clear how much it raised in previous rounds.

10. , $67.4M, biotechnology: Philadelphia-based Fore Biotherapeutics (previously known as NovellusDx) raised $67.4 million in Series D funding to advance its precision oncology therapies targeting rare cancer mutations. The company is developing targeted treatments for patients whose tumors are driven by specific genetic alterations. led the latest round, which brings its total to date to just over $274 million. , , , and other investors also joined.

Large non-US deals:

Several startups based outside the U.S. also raised notable fundings this week. They include:

• , 鈧�411M, fusion energy: Munich-based Proxima Fusion raised a 鈧�411 million (about $468 million) Series B funding round to develop what鈥檚 poised to become Europe鈥檚 first commercial fusion energy power plant. Lead investors in the round include , , and .
• , 鈧�200M, workplace tech: led the 鈧�200 million ($229 million) private-equity round for Paris-based Skello, which makes HR software for employers to handle tasks such as payroll, scheduling, compliance and employee communications.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 兔子先生传媒 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of July 4-10. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

This week was not an exceptionally busy one for large funding deals, though we saw sizable rounds in a lively mix of sectors ranging from AI to fintech to quantum computing and cybersecurity. The biggest raise was for AI world-model developer, which secured a $310 million Series B. Venture investors also put money into AI infrastructure and AI models for biotech.

1. , $310M, artificial intelligence: Menlo Park, California-based Odyssey raised $310 million at a $1.45 billion valuation in a Series B round led by . Other investors included ,,,, and . Odyssey develops AI world models that create multimodal simulations of real-world environments. The startup has now raised $337 million in funding to date, .

2. , $140M, fintech: New York-based Chronograph secured a $140 million private equity round led by . The company provides portfolio monitoring, reporting and diligence software for private capital investors, an increasingly important market as private assets continue to grow. The new raise, which it describes as growth capital, brings its total funding to date to $160 million, according to .

3. (tied) , $100M, AI infrastructure: Boulder, Colorado-based Hydra Host raised a massive $100 million Series A led by . A of other investors joined, including ,, , and . The company operates a bare-metal GPU platform that connects customers to distributed AI computing infrastructure. With the latest investment, it has raised just under $119 million to date.

3. (tied) , $100M, cybersecurity: Startups that promise to protect companies in the AI era are also raising massive sums right out of the gate. This week, Santa Clara, California-based Ent.AI emerged from stealth and said it has raised $100 million in seed funding led by. Other investors included,, 1,, and. The company, founded by former executives and members of the Security Copilot team, offers an AI-powered workspace security platform that it says can analyze user and AI-agent behavior in real time to proactively prevent cyber threats.

3. (tied) , $100M, cybersecurity, defense: Arlington, Virginia-based Twenty Technologies secured a $100 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation. The round was led by, with participation from, and. The company develops AI-enabled cyber warfare systems for the U.S. military and intelligence community, helping automate and accelerate offensive cyber operations at scale. Founded by former cyber operators and defense technologists, Twenty Technologies has now raised $138 million to date,. It鈥檚 part of a growing wave of venture-backed startups building software for military and national security purposes.

3. (tied) , $100M, quantum computing: Berkeley, California-based Atom Computing raised a $100 million Series C led by that brings its total private investment to date to just over $191 million, . and also backed its latest round. Along with the venture money, Atom also received a $100 million Letter of Intent from the under the CHIPS and Science Act that gives the startup additional public backing in exchange for a minority government stake. The company develops neutral-atom quantum computers, one of several competing architectures seeking to commercialize quantum computing. It is one of several quantum startups to receive sizable funding deals this year, following a record-breaking venture investment year for the sector in 2025.

7. , $65M, biotechnology: Watertown, Massachusetts-based Triveni Bio raised a $65 million Series C co-led by and. Additional participation came from. The company develops antibody-based therapeutics for immunological and inflammatory diseases. It has now raised $272 million total from investors, .

8. (tied) , $52M, semiconductor infrastructure: Menlo Park, California-based AttoTude secured a $52 million Series C led by. Other investors included ,,,, 2, and. The startup develops high-speed interconnect technology for AI and hyperscale data centers and has raised $142 million to date, according to . It comes amid robust funding for semiconductor startups this year.

8. (tied) , $52M, digital media: Beverly Hills, California-based Richard Roths Media raised a $52 million venture round led by . The company says it delivered AI-driven marketing and advertising services for 鈥渉igh trust鈥� industries such as banking, law and healthcare. The investment appears to be its first outside capital, per 兔子先生传媒.

10. (tied) , $50M, artificial intelligence: San Francisco-based Bland AI raised a $50 million Series C led by . The of other investors includes , , founder , and others. The company develops AI-powered voice agents that automate inbound and outbound phone conversations for enterprises, a category that has seen growing adoption as businesses look to replace traditional call-center workflows. It has raised $106 million to date, according to .

10. (tied) , $50M, fintech: Brooklyn-based Interchecks secured a $50 million Series C led by,, and. The company operates a payments platform that allows businesses to manage deposits and payouts through a single API, reflecting continued investor interest in infrastructure that simplifies financial operations. It has now raised just under $79 million to date.

10. (tied) , $50M, artificial intelligence, biotechnology: Menlo Park, California-based Radical Numerics emerged from stealth and said it has raised a $50 million seed round led by, with participation from , and . The startup is developing AI models designed to simulate and predict biological systems, with the goal of accelerating drug discovery and advancing precision medicine.

Large non-US deals:

• The largest startup deal outside of the U.S. this week was very large indeed, and also very unusual. , the Chinese AI chatbot startup that briefly roiled public AI-related stocks in early 2025, reportedly took its first outside financing, worth roughly $7.4 billion. The Series A deal, however, comes with a lot of atypical caveats, notably that investors in the deal didn鈥檛 actually receive a stake in DeepSeek, but rather in an LLC controlled by founder , per . Those investors also reportedly face a five-year lockup and receive no voting rights.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 兔子先生传媒 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of June 13-18. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

Defense tech unicorn led the fundraising lineup in a week heavy with rounds for companies focused on applications in the physical world. Anduril鈥檚 $5 billion financing was by far the biggest. Other large rounds went to companies focused on supplying data power, robotics, space tech, biotech, and even strawberries.

1.听, $5B, defense tech: Defense tech unicorn Anduril Industries raised another $5 billion in funding at a $61 billion valuation 鈥� double the valuation of $30.5 billion it received less than a year ago. The Series H round, led by and , brings the Costa Mesa, California-based company鈥檚 total raised to date to $11.4 billion, .听听

2.听, $775M, energy: Houston-based VoltaGrid, a provider of mobile natural gas generators for data centers, microgrids and industrial applications, secured $1 billion in strategic investment from and . The investment includes $775 million in capital funding and a $225 million secondary purchase from existing investors.

3.听, $400M, robotics: Palo Alto, California-based Mind Robotics, developer of an AI-enabled industrial robotics platform, picked up $400 million in new financing led by . The round brings total funding to date to more than $1 billion for the startup, which launched in 2025 as a spinout of .

4.听, $275M, space tech: Cowboy Space, a developer of rockets and satellite infrastructure to power and run AI compute in space, closed on $275 million in Series B funding at a $2 billion valuation. led the financing for the San Carlos, California-based startup, which was founded by co-founder .听

5.听, $150M, indoor farming: Oishii, operator of highly automated indoor farms for growing strawberries, raised $150 million in Series C funding led by . Founded in 2016, the Jersey City, New Jersey-headquartered startup has raised $370 million in total funding to date.

6.听, $125M, cybersecurity: San Jose-based Exaforce, developer of an AI-native security operations platform, secured $125 million in Series B funding from backers including , , , 听补苍诲听 .

7.听, $122M, biotech: Create Medicines, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup focused on in vivo immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer, closed on $122 million in Series B funding. , , and led the financing.

8.听, $100M, autonomy: Providence, Rhode Island-based HavocAI, a provider of tools for developing military and commercial-grade autonomous systems across sea, air and land, secured $100 million in Series A funding. The round brings total funding to date for the 2-year-old company to $200 million.

9.听, $65M, space tech: Star Catcher, a startup that says it is building the first power grid in space by beaming concentrated solar energy on demand to satellites, picked up $65 million in Series A funding. , and led the financing for the Jacksonville, Florida-based company, which was founded less than two years ago.

10.听, $64M, data center power: GridCare, developer of technology to more efficiently provide power to AI data centers, raised $64 million in Series A funding. led the financing for the Redwood City, California-based startup.听

Related reading:

• Anduril Raises Another $5B As Defense Tech Startups Shatter Funding Records听

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