It was another interesting week for AI-related startup funding, with a number of large rounds and some unusual companies. The largest financings went to Tenstorrent and AI lab Flapping Airplanes, while the most unusual was Warhound's $200 million round to breed elite military dogs. Big rounds in biotech, space tech and physical AI filled out the list.
Santa Clara-based Tenstorrent, a developer of AI processors and systems, secured $1.5 billion in Series E funding led by Trace Capital and Innovation X, at a $6.2 billion valuation. Flapping Airplanes, an AI lab building models that cost less to train and run, closed a $1 billion Series A led by Lux Capital and Index Ventures. That round came less than 10 months after the year-old San Francisco startup raised a $180 million seed financing.
Boston-based ASI, which builds AI for securing and operating critical infrastructure in aviation, transportation and defense, raised $325 million in Series C financing led by Spark Capital at a $3 billion valuation. Xona, a startup developing a next-generation version of GPS, raised $250 million in Series D funding led by Future Ventures. That round values the Burlingame, California-based company at $2.4 billion.
Pathos AI, which applies AI to drug development, completed a $237 million Series E led by Bristol-Myers Squibb at a post-money valuation of around $3 billion. Warp Sciences raised a $215 million Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners to use AI and robotics to develop medicines faster. Star Therapeutics raised $200 million led by OrbiMed and Janus Henderson Investors, following Incyte's July acquisition of its subsidiary Vega Therapeutics in a deal valued at up to $2 billion.
Whop, a platform for building and running online businesses, secured $200 million in Series D funding led by Sequoia Capital and Shopify Ventures at a $5.1 billion valuation. Warhound, co-founded by Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey, launched from stealth with $200 million in seed funding to breed working dogs equipped with Anduril technology. Arda Industries closed a $160 million Series A at a $1.5 billion valuation for its AI-powered manufacturing engineering software. It also disclosed a previously unannounced $72 million seed round.
Crunchbase tracked the largest announced rounds in its database raised by U.S.-based companies from Oct. 17 to 23, 2026. Most announced rounds are captured, but there may be a small time lag because some rounds are reported late in the week.