From January to September 2026, 191 AI companies raised money at a valuation of $1B or more. Twenty-five of them were valued at $10B or more, and four at $100B or more. Anthropic tops the list at $965B after its May round, ahead of OpenAI at $852B.
This page lists the independent, still-private AI startups that raised at $10B or more in 2026, with the latest valuation, the date of that round, the days that had passed by September 30, and who led it. Below the table are the startups that raised twice this year at sharply higher prices, and a breakdown of all 191 by country, sector and size.
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AI startups valued at $10B or more in 2026
The 23 independent private AI startups whose 2026 round valued them at $10B or more, ordered by their latest valuation, with figures given as “over” a number placed at that number. “Reported” flags figures that rest on press reports alone, with no company announcement behind them. Days are counted from the round to September 30, 2026.
| # | Company | What it does | Latest valuation | Latest round | Announced or reported | Days since | Led by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthropic | Claude models | $965B | $65B Series H | May 28, 2026 | 125 | Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia |
| 2 | OpenAI | ChatGPT and GPT models | $852B | $122B committed | Mar 31, 2026 | 183 | SoftBank, with Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft |
| 3 | Databricks | Data and AI platform | $190B | $5B | Aug 13, 2026 | 48 | Coatue |
| 4 | Anduril | Defense technology | $61B | $5B Series H | May 13, 2026 | 140 | Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz |
| 5 | DeepSeek | Open-weight language models | Over $50B (reported) | Over 50B yuan (about $7.4B), including founder money (reported) | Jun 16, 2026 | 106 | None named; Tencent and CATL among the largest backers |
| 6 | Cognition | AI coding agents | $48B | Over $2B Series E | Sep 8, 2026 | 22 | Andreessen Horowitz, Accel |
| 7 | Moonshot AI | Kimi models | $35B (reported) | Over $3.5B (reported) | Jul 30, 2026 | 62 | Not disclosed |
| 8 | Mistral AI | Open and commercial language models | Over €21B | €3B Series D | Sep 8, 2026 | 22 | Samsung Electronics, with EQT’s Scaleup Europe Fund and PSG Equity |
| 9 | Etched | AI inference chips | $21B | $700M | Aug 18, 2026 | 43 | Jane Street |
| 10 | Fluidstack | AI cloud computing | Over $18B (reported) | $1.5B (reported) | Sep 3, 2026 | 27 | Jane Street (reported) |
| 11 | Helsing | Defense AI | $18B | $1.8B Series E | Jul 13, 2026 | 79 | Dragoneer, with Lightspeed (reported) |
| 12 | Fireworks AI | AI inference platform | $17.5B | $1.505B Series D | Jul 16, 2026 | 76 | Atreides, Index Ventures, TCV |
| 13 | Sierra | Customer service agents | $15.8B (reported) | $950M Series E | May 4, 2026 | 149 | Tiger Global, GV (reported) |
| 14 | Harvey | Legal AI | $15.5B | $550M | Sep 9, 2026 | 21 | Diffusion, Lightspeed |
| 15 | Nscale | AI cloud and data centers | $14.6B | $2B Series C | Mar 9, 2026 | 205 | Aker, 8090 Industries |
| 16 | Skild AI | Foundation models for robots | Over $14B | About $1.4B Series C | Jan 14, 2026 | 259 | SoftBank |
| 17 | Lovable | AI app builder | $13.3B | $400M Series C | Aug 12, 2026 | 49 | Menlo Ventures, with EQT’s Scaleup Europe Fund |
| 18 | Baseten | AI inference platform | $13B | $1.5B Series F | Jun 22, 2026 | 100 | Altimeter, Conviction, Spark Capital, with Sands Capital and Wellington |
| 19 | Shield AI | Autonomous military aircraft | $12.7B | $1.5B Series G | Mar 26, 2026 | 188 | Advent International, JPMorgan |
| 20 | OpenEvidence | Medical answers for doctors | $12B | $250M Series D | Jan 21, 2026 | 252 | Thrive Capital, DST Global |
| 21 | SambaNova | AI chips and inference | $11B | $1B Series F, first close | Jul 8, 2026 | 84 | General Atlantic |
| 22 | ElevenLabs | Voice AI | $11B | $500M Series D | Feb 4, 2026 | 238 | Sequoia |
| 23 | Instinct | Personal AI assistant | $10B (reported) | $1B Series C | Sep 28, 2026 | 2 | None named; Sequoia, Benchmark and Coatue took part |
Notes on the table:
- OpenAI’s $122B is committed capital. Amazon’s $50B share is $15B up front and $35B subject to future conditions.
- DeepSeek’s round includes money from its founder, Liang Wenfeng, and outside investors came in through a partnership he manages, except a state-backed AI fund, which invested directly.
- Shield AI’s $1.5B Series G came with $500M of preferred equity from Blackstone, $2B in total.
- ElevenLabs was reported on September 30 to have run a $300M employee share sale at $22B. No new money went to the company, so the table keeps the $11B round.
- OpenEvidence was reported in September to have raised $250M at $15B. Its date and terms have not been established, so this page uses the January round throughout.
- Nscale signed about $3.4B of pre-IPO financing in September, made up of $2.4B in convertible notes and a $1B commitment from Nvidia, and has filed to list in New York. Its last priced round is the March Series C.
Two companies reached $10B in a 2026 round but are no longer independent private startups. xAI raised $20B in January; on February 2, SpaceX bought it in a deal that valued xAI at $250B. Cerebras Systems raised $1B at about $23B in February and listed on Nasdaq in May. Both still count in the 191 companies and the 25 valued at $10B or more. Waymo ($16B at $126B, Alphabet) and Kling AI (Kuaishou) raised from outside investors as units of public companies, so they are left out of the table and of the 191.
How long since each one raised
Thirteen of the 23 had their latest round announced or reported within 100 days of September 30, including Instinct, whose round at a reported $10B came two days before the cutoff. The longest gaps belong to Skild AI (259 days), OpenEvidence (252) and ElevenLabs (238), and both OpenEvidence and ElevenLabs have since been reported at higher prices, in a round and in an employee share sale.
Across all 191 companies, 79 had their latest $1B-plus round in July, August or September. Another 54 raised in April to June and 58 in January to March.
Big valuation climbers of 2026
Several AI startups raised at least twice this year at much higher prices. Five of them:
- Etched, which designs inference chips: $5B in a round reported in January to $10.3B in a $300M Sequoia-led Series C in July, then $21B in August.
- Higgsfield, an AI video app: above $1.3B in January to $5.4B in an August Series B led by DST Global.
- Instinct: $2.5B in August to a reported $10B at the end of September.
- General Intuition, which trains AI agents on video game footage: $2.3B in June to $6.2B in September.
- Baseten: $5B in January to $13B in June.
Anthropic went from $380B in February to $965B in May. Cognition went from $26B in May to $48B in September, Databricks from $134B in February to $190B in August, and Harvey from $11B in March to $15.5B in September. For the stage-by-stage view, see how AI startup valuations changed in 2026.
Where the 2026 AI unicorns are based
US startups account for 125 of the 191, or 65.4%. China has 25 and the UK 15. No other country has more than four. In Europe, the largest 2026 valuations went to Mistral AI in France and Helsing in Germany, followed by Nscale in the UK and Lovable in Sweden.
What they build
Developer tools and AI infrastructure is the largest group, with 68 companies. It covers model labs such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Mistral AI, inference platforms such as Fireworks AI and Baseten, and coding tools such as Cognition and Lovable. Manufacturing and industrial AI is second with 52; 28 of those build robots or robot software, and the rest include chip makers such as Etched and Cerebras Systems. Defense and government (19) includes Anduril, Helsing and Shield AI.
Valuation tiers
In all, 144 of the 191 were valued at $1B to under $5B, 22 at $5B to under $10B, 21 at $10B to under $100B, and four at $100B or more: Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI and Databricks.
The big rounds behind these valuations are covered in AI mega-rounds in 2026, and companies that raised at lower prices are tracked in the AI down rounds tracker.
Who led the rounds
Eight firms led or co-led two of the 23 rounds in the table: Sequoia (Anthropic, ElevenLabs), SoftBank (OpenAI, Skild AI), Thrive Capital (Anduril, OpenEvidence), Andreessen Horowitz (Anduril, Cognition), Dragoneer (Anthropic, plus a reported lead of Helsing), Altimeter (Anthropic, Baseten), Lightspeed (Harvey, plus a reported co-lead of Helsing) and Jane Street (Etched, plus a reported lead of Fluidstack). For which investors hold the most AI unicorns, see the AI unicorn power rankings.
Frequently asked questions
How many AI unicorns raised in 2026?
191 AI companies raised at a valuation of $1B or more from January to September 2026. It does not include AI unicorns that did not raise this year.
What is the most valuable AI startup in 2026?
Anthropic, at $965B after its $65B Series H on May 28, 2026. OpenAI is second at $852B after its $122B committed-capital round in March.
Which AI startup raised its valuation fastest this year?
Instinct had one of the shortest gaps: $2.5B in August and a reported $10B at the end of September. Etched and Higgsfield each roughly quadrupled their valuations in 2026.
How are the valuations measured?
Each valuation is the figure announced or reported at the time of the round, in the currency it was announced in. It is not marked to market afterwards. Employee share sales and debt do not count as a new valuation.
How this list was built
The list covers funding rounds announced or reported from January 1 to September 30, 2026 by companies whose main product is an AI model, an AI application or AI-specific infrastructure. A company counts once, at its highest 2026 valuation, and the $1B and $10B lines use US dollar equivalents for rounds priced in other currencies. Subsidiaries of public companies are left out of every count. Companies acquired or listed after their 2026 round count in the totals but not in the table.
About the author
Editorial Staff
The Editorial Staff at Bot Memo is a team of writers, analysts, and AI agents dedicated to mapping the global AI startup ecosystem. Led by Chintan Zalani, the team tracks thousands of funding rounds, classifies companies across verticals, and distills it all into actionable intelligence for investors and founders.
