The Biggest AI Startup Funding Rounds of 2024

The artificial intelligence sector dominated the venture capital landscape in 2024, reflected in the surge of nine- and ten-figure funding rounds.

To make the list of the year’s largest AI startup funding rounds, companies needed to surpass the billion-dollar threshold.

1. Databricks, $10 Billion: Databricks secured a staggering $10 billion in funding, reaching a $62 billion valuation. This marks the largest venture capital raise of 2024 and among the biggest ever. The company’s valuation increased by 44% from its 2023 valuation of $43 billion.

The San Francisco-based company develops tools that help businesses process, analyze, and manage large datasets using AI and machine learning. Databricks now ranks as the fourth most highly valued U.S.-based startup, following OpenAI, SpaceX, and Stripe.

Thrive Capital spearheaded Databricks’ new funding round. Other major investors included Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, GIC, Insight Partners, and WCM Investment Management. Existing investor Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, along with new investors Iconiq Growth, MGX, Sands Capital, and Wellington Management, also participated.

Databricks plans to use the new funds for AI product development, acquisitions, international expansion, and providing liquidity for current and former employees.

1. OpenAI, $6.6 Billion: OpenAI closed the second-largest round of the year, raising $6.6 billion at a substantial post-money valuation of $157 billion. Thrive Capital led the investment, making the ChatGPT creator a leading private company globally.

Additional investment came from Altimeter Capital, Fidelity, Khosla Ventures, Microsoft, Nvidia, SoftBank, and MGX (based in Abu Dhabi). SoftBank’s Vision Fund reportedly invested $500 million in the round.

This funding arrived amidst significant internal challenges for the company, including the departure of senior employees and a restructuring that transformed the firm from a nonprofit to a for-profit benefit corporation, granting co-founder Sam Altman equity. The funding structure included convertible notes and a provision that allowed investors to reclaim their investment if the restructuring wasn’t finalized within two years, also removing a cap on returns for investors.

1. (Tied) xAI, $6 Billion: In May, Elon Musk’s xAI secured a $6 billion funding round. Investors included Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Fidelity Management & Research Co., valuing the company at $24 billion.

Musk’s generative AI startup released its ChatGPT competitor, Grok, in November 2023. Grok’s data training comes from X (formerly Twitter).

1. (Tied) xAI, $6 Billion: xAI swiftly returned to the list. In November, the company completed another $6 billion funding round, which The Wall Street Journal reported valued it at $50 billion. The funding involved the Qatar Investment Authority, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia Capital.

2. Waymo, $5.6 Billion: Autonomous vehicle company Waymo, a Google spinoff, received a significant investment of $5.6 billion from its former parent, Alphabet, in October. This round valued the company at more than $45 billion. It was Waymo’s first raise since a $2.5 billion round in 2021.

3. Anthropic, $4 Billion: Amazon invested another $4 billion in AI startup Anthropic in November. Anthropic presents itself as a ChatGPT rival, offering an AI assistant named Claude. Amazon had previously agreed to invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic during the fall of 2023, securing a minority stake.

The initial investment was $1.25 billion, with the remaining $2.75 billion provided earlier this year. The deal saw Anthropic name Amazon Web Services its primary cloud provider and utilize AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips for model building, training, and deployment. This new investment will bring Amazon’s total investment in Anthropic to $8 billion, maintaining its minority stake, according to an Anthropic blog.

1. (Tied) Anduril Industries, $1.5 Billion: Anduril Industries matched its previous record for the largest defense tech round. The Costa Mesa, California-based startup secured a $1.5 billion Series F round in August, which valued the company at $14 billion. This reflected a 69% increase from the $8.5 billion valuation it received after its $1.5 billion Series E round in late 2022.

Founders Fund and Sands Capital co-led the round. Anduril plans to use the proceeds to develop Arsenal-1, a production space exceeding 5 million square feet, aimed at producing tens of thousands of autonomous military systems annually.

1. (Tied) G42, $1.5 Billion: Microsoft made a $1.5 billion strategic investment in the United Arab Emirates-based artificial intelligence firm G42 in April. Though Microsoft’s investment in AI is commonplace, as seen with OpenAI, this deal with G42, which acts as an AI holding company, involved certain complexities that likely needed to be settled before the announcement.

It was reported that the deal followed discussions between the U.S. and G42 regarding its divestment from China technology and its reduced presence there. Earlier this year, the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter urging the Department of Commerce to investigate G42.

1. (Tied) CoreWeave, $1.1 Billion: AI cloud infrastructure startup CoreWeave secured a $1.1 billion round in May, which Coatue led, valuing the company at $19 billion according to The Wall Street Journal. This valuation represented a nearly threefold increase from its December 2023 valuation of $7 billion after a secondary sale and marked a significant jump from its Series B extension in May 2023, which valued the company at $2 billion.

2. (Tied) Wayve, $1.1 Billion: London-based self-driving car startup Wayve raised approximately $1.1 billion, led by SoftBank. This significant funding deal signaled continued investor interest in artificial intelligence and marked one of the largest funding rounds for a British startup.

Nvidia and existing investor Microsoft participated in this Series C funding round. Wayve has now raised $1.3 billion, according to Crunchbase. It did not disclose the latest funding round’s valuation. Its self-driving car technology relies on embodied AI, in which an AI-powered real-world object, such as a vehicle, interacts with and learns from its environment continuously.

Finally, in 2024, four AI startups raised $1 billion rounds: Moonshot AI, Safe Superintelligence, Scale AI, and Xaira Therapeutics.