In startup circles, 2025 will be remembered as a busy year for big AI rounds.

A total of 15 companies secured venture funding rounds of $2 billion or more last year, per Crunchbase data. Among them, they amassed more than $100 billion from those financings.

The majority were generative AI companies, and they accrued most of the cash. The single largest round went to OpenAI, with its record-setting $40 billion SoftBank-backed financing in March. Four others raised rounds of more than $5 billion.

With the year now in hindsight, we thought it would be timely to take a look at who secured the largest financings. Below are the top 15, in descending order.

1. OpenAI, $40B, artificial intelligence:On March 31, OpenAI announced that it secured a $40 billion investment led by SoftBank. The deal for the San Francisco-based company is the biggest venture investment ever. Per details of the deal, SoftBank will build a syndicate of co-investors to provide $10 billion of the total, while it expects to fund the other $30 billion, with $10 billion of that amount through debt.

2. Scale AI, $14.3B, generative AI:San Francisco-based Scale AI, a provider of training data and model evaluation for AI applications, raised a reported $14.3 billion from Meta in June at a valuation of $29 billion. Under the agreement, Scale’s founder, Alexandr Wang, and some other employees joined Meta to work on its AI efforts.

3. Anthropic, $13B, generative AI:San Francisco-based generative AI unicorn Anthropic raised a $13 billion Series F round at a $183 billion valuation in September. Iconiq Capital led the round, with Fidelity and Lightspeed Venture Partners co-leading.

4. Project Prometheus, $6.2B, artificial intelligence:Project Prometheus, a startup focused on applying AI technology to physical tasks, launched with $6.2 billion in initial funding, per a November report. Jeff Bezos will reportedly serve as co-CEO, alongside Vik Bajaj, a physicist and chemist who served as CEO and co-founder of biotech startup Foresite Labs and is also known for his work at Google’s X.

5. xAI, $5.3B, generative AI:Elon Musk’s generative AI startup xAI pulled in $5.3 billion in fresh equity funding this summer, per a securities filing. Since its inception just two-and-half years ago, the Palo Alto, California-based company has raised more than $22 billion in equity and debt financing, per Crunchbase data.

6. Databricks, $4B, data and AI:Databricks announced in December that it is raising over $4 billion in a Series L financing at a $134 billion valuation, led by Insight Partners, Fidelity and J.P. Morgan Asset Management. The 12-year-old, San Francisco-headquartered company also said it crossed the $4.8 billion revenue run-rate in its third quarter, growing more than 55% year over year.

7. Anthropic, $3.5B, generative AI:Anthropic raised a $3.5 billion funding round in March led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, valuing the San Francisco-based unicorn at $61.5 billion.

8. Anduril Industries, $2.5B, defense tech:Costa Mesa, California-based defense tech startup Anduril Industries has raised $2.5 billion in a June Series G round led by Founders Fund, more than doubling its valuation to $30.5 billion post-money.

9. Anysphere, $2.3B, AI coding:Coding automation platform Cursor and parent company Anysphere raised $2.3 billion in a November Series D financing backed by Accel, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, Coatue, Nvidia and Google. The round set a $29.3 billion post-money valuation for the San Francisco-headquartered company.

10. (tied) Polymarket, $2B, prediction market:Intercontinental Exchange, the operator of clearing houses and exchanges including the New York Stock Exchange, announced in October that it will invest up to $2 billion into the prediction market platform Polymarket. The deal sets an $8 billion pre-money valuation for New York-based Polymarket, which lets users wager on event probabilities across markets, politics, sports and other areas.

10. (tied) Reflection AI, $2B, artificial intelligence:Reflection AI, a developer of LLM training models based on open standards, raised $2 billion in an October funding round backed by Nvidia and a long list of venture investors. The financing sets an $8 billion valuation for the New York-based company.

10. (tied) Safe Superintelligence, $2B, artificial intelligence:AI research lab Safe Superintelligence, the Palo Alto, California-based startup co-founded by OpenAI’s former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, reportedly raised a $2 billion April round at a $32 billion valuation led by Greenoaks Capital Partners.

10. (tied) Thinking Machines Lab, $2B, artificial intelligence:San Francisco-based Thinking Machines Lab, the artificial intelligence startup launched and led by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, reportedly secured a $2 billion seed round at a $10 billion valuation with Andreessen Horowitz as lead investor. The financing ranks as the largest U.S. seed round of all time, per Crunchbase data.

10. (tied) Binance, $2B, cryptocurrency:Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange Binance received a $2 billion investment in March from Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX.

10. (tied) Mistral AI, $2B, generative AI:France-based frontier model company Mistral was valued at $13.2 billion in a $2 billion September funding led by Netherlands-based chipmaker ASML.

Related Crunchbase query:

• Financings Of $2B+, 2025

Related reading:

• The Crunchbase Megadeals Board
• SoftBank And OpenAI Make History With Largest Startup Financing Ever
• Anthropic Nearly Triples Valuation To $183B With Massive New Funding
• Bezos Launches AI Startup With $6.2B In Reported Funding

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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