AI Funding Pulse

Q1-Q2 $250-310B+ AI VC; Global VC record $510B H1 2026 (OpenAI+Anthropic 43% of AI VC). Prometheus $12B physical AI; DeepSeek $7.4B >$50B val; Moonshot $2B >$20B; Mistral ASML $1.5B; World Labs $1B; Yann LeCun >$1B; Baseten $1.5B inference; Tripo AI $150M (3D world models); Twelve Labs $100M video AI (Amazon/NEA/Naver, Trainium); Harvey AI $11B legal AI; Norm Ai $120M Series C at $1.2B val (legal AI, Khosla/Blackstone/Bain/Coatue/Vanguard); General Intuition $320M spatial AI; Prem AI $100M sovereignty; Manifold AI world models; CuspAI $400M materials; Odyssey $310M world models; Theker $85M robots; CNTXT $60M UAE; Poetic $50M enterprise; Comand AI €32M defense; Sarvam $234M India; Respond.io $62.5M; Security Copilot $100M; Tutor $34M; Limitless $20M; Coram $35M; AttoTude $52M infra; Gray Swan $40M security; Conduct $60M ERP; Convey $38M agents; Pramaana $27M verification; Runlayer $30M governance; Sail $80M inference (ex-Apple/Nvidia, agents); Patronus AI $50M evaluation; Airwallex $320M agentic finance; Taktile $110C; Arca $64M wealthtech; Nebius-Eigen $643M acq; Blitzy $200M agents; Infinigence $103M China; Corgi $160M insurtech; Mal.ai $230M fintech; Prior €1B SAP; Bluechip-YarnGPT acq Africa; Indian IT $5.5B M&A; Aston Power; Engram $98M memory; Mirendil $200M seed lab; Seltz $12.5M; xCures $46M; Trase $107M; Netris $15M; RAISE US $500M+; Robotics VC record $55.8B midyear (Saronic, Skild AI, Neura, Apptronik, Nvidia GR00T). May US VC $67B ($17B ex-Anthropic). New: Oxmiq Labs $35M Series A (Raja Koduri AI silicon IP); Unconventional AI $475M seed at $4.5B val (Naveen Rao, a16z/Lightspeed/Bezos, AI hardware); Crusoe $3B at $30B val (AI data center builder, OpenAI/Meta customers); AGILINK $147M at $1B val (Chinese dexterous robotics); 1001 $30M Series A (UAE sovereign AI OS); Even Realities $150M Pre-B at $1B val (smart glasses, Meituan/Tencent); C5i files confidential IPO in India (enterprise AI analytics); Chinese AI chip startup (3D stacking) emerges. Anthropic $965B val eyeing IPO. Harvard study: AI-native startups hire fewer juniors, more elite engineers. Crunchbase: $392B H1 2026 North American VC, 80% AI-driven; early-stage rising while seed declining. Station F F/ai accelerator second batch signals European ecosystem growth. New today: SambaNova $1B Series F at $11B val (inference chip, JPMorgan customer, Intel co-development); Positron seeking $750M at up to $5B val (inference chip); Ollama $65M Series B (open-source AI dev platform, 8.9M devs, 85% Fortune 500); Kaon AI $60M (GenAI entertainment, $45M ARR); Quantum Systems $1.2B at $8B (defense drones); Generalist AI $400M at $2B (robot foundation models); CarbonSix $40M (robotic hands); Luxonis ~$14M (vision layer); DeepSeek aims to make own AI chip; Zoom acquires Common Room (AI sales agent, $52M raised); Europe Q2 2026 VC $24B (strongest in 4 years, UK $10.4B). Striking stat: OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX IPOs will generate more value than all US VC-backed exits since 2000 (Google, Meta, Tesla, Uber combined) — historically unprecedented AI funding cycle. New: Gradium $100M seed (voice AI, Nvidia); Mercor in talks for $500M at $20B valuation (data labeling, $2B ARR, doubled from $10B, Deeptune acq). India data centre boom: $57B committed by US hyperscalers, $5B+ PE/VC, capacity doubling to 1.6 GW; gap between data generation (20% of world) and capacity (2-3%). New: Mecka AI $60M Series A (human-motion data engine for physical AI, Framework Ventures led). New today: Helsing $1.8B at $18B (European defense AI, sovereign ownership, oversubscribed); Lyzr AI $100M at $500M val (AI agent raised its own funding, meta-story); Augmodo $21M at $350M val (spatial AI wearables, 10x revenue growth, 186M sq ft mapped); Three AI chip companies raised $2.55B in one day: SambaNova $1B at $11B (SN50 5x B200, JPMorgan), Positron up to $750M at $5B, Iluvatar CoreX $900M (Chinese inference chip); GoHub Ventures H1 2026 analysis: US vs Europe AI funding; Sapphire Ventures 'Show Me' era perspective; Premji Invest's 11 AI bets (cross-border capital); Augmodo $21M spatial AI wearables; Helsing $1.8B at $18B (European defense AI, sovereign ownership, oversubscribed).