Largest AI Funding Rounds
The ten largest single funding rounds in AI history, ranked by capital raised in one transaction. All are 2025–2026 events — the mega-round era. A round counts once at its priced size; follow-on tranches and debt facilities are excluded, and post-IPO placements are marked as such.
| # | Company | Value | Date | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | OpenAI Record round — largest single raise in venture history, at an $852B valuation. | $122B | 2026-03-31 | Disclosed |
| 2 | Anthropic Series H, with Nvidia joining late at the near-trillion print. | $65B | 2026-05-28 | Disclosed |
| 3 | xAI Series E that became the SpaceX acquisition month later. | $20B | 2026-01-06 | Disclosed |
| 4 | Waymo Largest autonomous-systems round on record. | $16B | 2026-02-02 | Disclosed |
| 5 | Scale AI Meta strategic — 49% non-voting stake, technically an investment not a priced round. | $14.3B | 2025-06-12 | Disclosed |
| 6 | Databricks Data-and-AI platform round at $134B. | $5B | 2026-08-13 | Disclosed |
| 7 | Safe Superintelligence Nvidia-led, at a $32B valuation with no product shipped. | $5B | 2026-07-27 | Reported |
| 8 | Zhipu AI Post-IPO placement plus zero-coupon convertible bonds. | ~$5B | 2026-09-11 | Reported |
| 9 | Moonshot AI Series F, state AI fund among the leads. | $3.5B | 2026-07-29 | Reported |
| 10 | MiniMax PIPE into the listed Chinese lab. | $2.05B | 2026-07-10 | Disclosed |
Zhipu's September 2026 two-part raise (~$2B placement plus ~$3B convertible bonds, ~$5B combined) is counted as one round at its combined size. OpenAI's $122B is the largest single round ever recorded in any industry.
More boards
Biggest AI Acquisitions & Control Deals
#1 · xAI ($250B)
AI Revenue (ARR) Leaders
#1 · Anthropic ($65B)
Highest AI Company Valuations
#1 · Anthropic ($965B)
The full capital picture lives on the Funding Leaderboard.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Scale AI's Meta deal count as a round when it was a stake purchase?
It moved $14.3 billion of primary capital into a private AI company in one transaction — the same economic event a mega-round produces, minus the voting rights. The board marks it clearly as a strategic investment rather than a priced round, because the 49% non-voting structure meant no traditional valuation process set the price.
How does OpenAI's $122B round compare with the largest rounds before the AI era?
It is roughly twenty times the largest pre-AI venture round. Before 2023, the record for a single private round sat near $6 billion; OpenAI's March 2026 print alone exceeds the lifetime funding of most of the companies on the main leaderboard, which is why the mega-round era is dated from 2025.
Why is Zhipu's convertible-bond raise included at the combined size?
The September 2026 raise was announced as one transaction — a ~$2 billion share placement plus ~$3 billion of zero-coupon convertibles priced off the same terms. Splitting it would understate the capital moved in a single event; the note flags the structure because convertible debt carries different risk than equity.
Are post-IPO placements really rounds?
They raise primary capital like any round, but from public-market buyers at market prices rather than negotiated private terms. Zhipu and MiniMax appear here for scale, with their structure noted — on the main leaderboard they carry the Post-IPO Placement label for the same reason.
Which round on this board was raised fastest relative to the previous one?
Anthropic's $65B Series H came just eight weeks after OpenAI's $122B print — the two largest rounds in history closed within two months of each other, and the H round's late Nvidia check suggests investors were racing to mark positions before the window repriced again.