Venture funding in Q3 2024 reached $66.5 billion globally, marking a 16% quarter-over-quarter decline, as per Crunchbase. However, standout funding activity in the US, particularly in AI and hardware, showcased resilience. AI startups dominated, capturing nearly $19 billion — 28% of all global venture dollars, solidifying the sector’s growth since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Healthcare and biotech followed, raising over $15 billion, driven by advancements in precision medicine and telehealth solutions. The hardware sector also gained traction, securing more than $13 billion as investments in semiconductor innovation and next-gen computing surged.
The largest rounds reflected a shift toward AI-driven applications, robotics, and advanced materials. These mega-deals illustrate sustained investor interest in transformative technologies despite overall funding declines.
Looking ahead, the prominence of US-based AI and hardware ventures underscores the nation’s leadership in cutting-edge tech. While venture funding may be cooling compared to 2023, strategic investments in high-impact sectors like AI and healthcare suggest continued growth opportunities. Taking a deeper dive into the investments, here we have curated the top funding rounds raised by US companies this year.
Databricks – $10B
Founder/s: Ali Ghodsi, Matei Zaharia, Reynold Xin, Ion Stoica, Patrick Wendell, Andy Konwinski, Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji
Founded year: 2013
Total funding: $14B
San Francisco-based AI startup Databricks provides a cloud-based platform for companies to leverage AI, including data management, and has integrated generative AI into its platform. The Databricks Data Intelligence Platform democratises access to data and AI, making it easier for organisations to harness the power of their data for analytics, machine learning, and agentic AI applications. Built on open data formats and architectural standards, the platform enhances accuracy for better cost and risk control.
Recently, the company raised a historic $10 billion in financing, which valued it at $62 billion. Thrive Capital led this round alongside Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, GIC, Insight Partners, and WCM Investment Management. Other participants include existing investors Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and new investors ICONIQ Growth, MGX, Sands Capital, and Wellington Management.
Databricks will invest this capital towards new AI products, acquisitions, and significant expansion of its international go-to-market operations.
Open AI – $6.6B
Founder/s: Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, John Schulman, Wojciech Zaremba
Founded year: 2015
Total funding: $19.0B
OpenAI pushes the boundaries of text and image generation research, actively engaging with ethical considerations. It develops AI systems that prioritise safety, fairness, and transparency. They also research generative models and how to align them with human values. OpenAI’s best-known product is ChatGPT, which disrupted the AI industry.
In October, OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in new funding, taking its post-money valuation to $157 billion. This makes it one of the most valuable private companies in the world. The company raised multiple rounds this year. This substantial investment will be directed toward expanding its research capabilities in frontier AI technologies, increasing computational infrastructure, and developing more accessible AI tools for both individuals and businesses.
xAI – $6B
Founder/s: Elon Musk
Founded year: 2023
Total funding: $12B
Founded with the vision to shape the future of AI, xAI launched its first AI product the same year it debuted. It introduced the Grok-1.5 model, which features enhanced long-context capabilities, as well as the Grok-1.5V model, designed for image recognition. Grok, the generative AI model and a rival of ChatGPT powers various features on X (acquired by Elon Musk). These include a chatbot available to X Premium subscribers and free users in some regions. The goal is to integrate advanced AI tools into X’s ecosystem while enhancing user experience and safety.
Recently, xAI landed $6 billion in funding from key contributors, including Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. It was reported that the company is targeting a $50 billion valuation, a significant increase from six months ago when its valuation stood at half that amount.
Waymo – $5.6B
Founder/s: Anthony Levandowski, Sebastian Thrun
Founded year: 2009
Total funding: $11.1B
Autonomous vehicle company Waymo, a Tesla rival, was launched as a part of Google X, Alphabet’s moonshot division. It led the way in developing autonomous vehicle technology, using machine learning, advanced sensor systems, and real-world testing to create one of the most robust self-driving systems. It aims to create a world where anyone can access safe, affordable self-driving transportation, expanding beyond ride-hailing into autonomous logistics and freight services. Currently, Waymo is testing different weather conditions and more complex urban environments in Buffalo, New York City, and Washington, DC.
In October, Waymo landed $5.6 billion in Series C funding. Alphabet led this round alongside Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global, and T. Rowe Price. The investment will be used to expand its market footprint and launch its robotaxi service in Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in 2025.
Anthropic – $4B
Founder/s: Dario Amodei, Daniela Amode
Founded year: 2021
Total funding: $11.8B
Anthropic, an AI safety and research company and a rival to OpenAI, developed Claude, a language model named after Claude Shannon, the “father of information theory.” It is designed to be safer and more controllable than typical language models, with an emphasis on ethical decision-making and mitigating harmful outcomes. Designed for natural language processing tasks, Claude has undergone several iterations, with each version enhancing its capabilities and safety features. Google and Anthropic entered into a partnership aimed at advancing safe and responsible AI development.
Last month, Amazon Web Services (AWS) pumped in a $4 billion investment in the company, bringing Amazon’s total funding in Anthropic to $8 billion and setting the stage for a transformative era in AI research and deployment. Both companies entered into a strategic partnership to develop scalable cloud technology.
Anduril – $1.5B
Founder/s: Palmer Luckey
Founded year: 2017
Total funding: $3.7B
Defense technology unicorn Anduril is focused on autonomous drones and sensors for military applications. The company develops defense systems for the US and allied nations. Its products reportedly range from surveillance towers to drones. It builds AI and commercially developed technologies into its hardware platforms for defense missions. Its Arsenal is a software-defined manufacturing platform that is optimised for the mass production of autonomous systems and weapons.
Co-led by PayPal-founder Peter Thiel’s VC firm Founders Fund, and Sands Capital, with participation from Fidelity Management & Research Company, Counterpoint Global, Baillie Gifford, Altimeter, and Franklin Venture Partners, Anduril raised $1.5 billion in a Series F funding round at a valuation of $14 billion.
The company intends to use the capital to scale up its operations, including increasing hiring, improving processes, upgrading tooling, enhancing supply chain resiliency, and expanding infrastructure.
Epic Games – $1.5B
CEO: Tim Sweeney
Founded year: 1991
Total funding: $8.6B
Epic Games is an interactive entertainment company and provider of 3D engine technology. It operates Fortnite, one of the world’s largest games with over 350 million accounts and 2.5 billion friend connections, and develops Unreal Engine, which powers the world’s leading games and is also adopted across industries such as film and television, architecture, automotive, manufacturing, and simulation. Through Unreal Engine, Epic Games Store, and Epic Online Services, the company provides an end-to-end digital ecosystem for developers and creators to build, distribute, and operate games and other content.
Earlier this year, the Walt Disney Company invested $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games, making its biggest bet yet on the gaming space. With this new collaboration between the entertainment and media company and the video game and software developer, consumers will be able to play, watch, shop, and engage with content, characters, and stories from Disney brands and franchises.
Scale AI – $1B
Founder/s: Alexandr Wang, Lucy Guo
Founded year: 2016
Total funding: $1.6B
Scale AI specialises in providing high-quality data for AI development. It leverages a proprietary data engine to power advanced models and provides the roadmap for any organisation to apply AI. It is used by industry leaders, including Meta, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, the U.S. Army, the DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit, OpenAI, General Motors, and Toyota Research Institute. It delivers high-quality training data for AI applications such as self-driving cars, mapping, AR/VR, robotics, etc.
In May, the company scooped $1 billion in Series F funding led by Accel with participation from Y Combinator, Nat Friedman, Index Ventures, Founders Fund, Coatue, Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, NVIDIA, Tiger Global Management, Greenoaks, and Wellington Management. Cisco Investments, DFJ Growth, Intel Capital, ServiceNow Ventures, AMD Ventures, WCM, Amazon, Elad Gil, and Meta also participated.
The company intends to use the funds to deepen its capabilities and offerings for both public and private evaluations.
AlphaSense – $650M
Founder/s: Jack Kokko, Raj Neervannan
Founded year: 2011
Total funding: $1.3B
New York-based AI-driven market intelligence and search platform AlphaSense helps professionals make smarter business decisions by delivering insights drawn from an extensive universe of public and private content including news, event transcripts, company filings, expert call transcripts, trade journals, and equity research. AlphaSense’s models combine strategic data points from both public and private analytics with a machine learning pipeline. This allows the platform to offer deep insights into business and finance analytics and provide actionable intelligence.
In June, AlphaSense secured $650 million in funding valued at $4 billion. It was co-led by investment firm Viking Global Investors and American merchant bank BDT & MSD Partners, with participation from J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Blue Owl, Alkeon Capital, Alphabet Inc.’s CapitalG, and Goldman Sachs Alternatives.
Perplexity – $500M
Founder/s: Arvind Srinivas, Dennis Yarats, Johnny Ho, Andy Konwinski
Founded year: 2022
Total funding: $915M
AI-powered search engine company Perplexity AI integrates ChatGPT and the Google search engine. The platform’s AI responds with summaries containing source citations, such as websites and articles. Users can ask follow-up questions to delve deeper into a particular topic with its search engine. Unlike traditional search engines, it provides a chatbot-like interface that allows users to ask questions in natural language.
Recently, AI-driven search engine Perplexity has raised $500 million in its fourth funding round from IVP tripling its valuation to $9 billion. The company also announced the acquisition of a small Seattle-based startup called Carbon. Previously, the company received an investment from SoftBank Group Vision Fund 2.
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