2024 US AI Funding: xAI and OpenAI Lead the Way

2023 marked the dawn of generative artificial intelligence, experiencing explosive growth. In 2024, the focus has shifted towards practical applications. Simultaneously, the capital market's interest in AI remains exceptionally strong.

Funding Giants: xAI and OpenAI

Elon Musk's xAI and industry benchmark OpenAI have secured $12 billion and$ 10.6 billion in funding, respectively, including bank loan facilities. These figures have continuously broken AI funding records despite the global economic downturn, making them truly remarkable achievements.

This article will explore US-based AI companies that have raised over $100 million this year. It is noteworthy that numerous other companies have also secured tens of millions of dollars, indicating a robust funding environment for AI within the tech sector.

December Funding Highlights

xAI: The renowned large model platform secured an additional $6 billion in funding, pushing its valuation beyond$ 50 billion.
Liquid AI: As a foundational model startup, Liquid AI received $250 million in Series A funding, valuing the company at$ 2.3 billion. AMD Ventures led this round.
Tractian: The robotics intelligence platform Tractian raised $120 million in Series C funding, with a valuation of$ 720 million. Sapphire Ventures and NGP Capital co-led the investment.
Perplexity: This generative AI search platform garnered $500 million in funding, reaching a valuation of$ 9 billion. Institutional Venture Partners led the round.
Tenstorrent: The AI hardware company Tenstorrent obtained $693 million in Series D funding, achieving a valuation of$ 2.7 billion.

November Funding Highlights

Enfabrica: Enfabrica, a startup specializing in AI network chips, secured $115 million in Series C funding.
Physical Intelligence: This startup, focused on developing foundational software for robots, raised $400 million in Series A funding, bringing its valuation to over$ 2 billion.
Writer: The AI collaboration platform Writer completed a $200 million Series C funding round.

October Funding Highlights

EvenUp: An AI-driven legal tech platform, EvenUp, completed a $135 million Series D round led by Bain Capital, with participation from SignalFire and Lightspeed, reaching a valuation of$ 1 billion.
KoBold Metals: Berkeley-based KoBold Metals raised $491.5 million in its latest funding round, with investors remaining undisclosed.
Poolside: The AI software platform Poolside completed a $500 million Series B funding round, led by Bain Capital, with participation from Redpoint, StepStone, and Nvidia, achieving a valuation of$ 3 billion.
OpenAI: On October 2nd, OpenAI announced $6.6 billion in funding and a$ 4 billion revolving credit facility, valuing the company at $157 billion.

September Funding Highlights

Glean: Enterprise search startup Glean announced its second funding round of 2024 on September 10th, raising $260 million in Series E funding, with a valuation of$ 4.5 billion.
Safe Superintelligence: Founded by former OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever and AI investor Daniel Gross, this AI research lab announced $1 billion in funding on September 4th, valuing the company at$ 4 billion.

August Funding Highlights

Magic: AI programming startup Magic completed a $320 million Series C funding round on August 29th, with participation from CapitalG, Sequoia, and Jane Street Capital.
Codeium: An AI-powered programming platform, Codeium, completed a $150 million Series C funding round, led by General Catalyst, with participation from Kleiner Perkins and Greenoaks, and a valuation of$ 1.2 billion.
DevRev: Focusing on AI-supported agents, DevRev completed a $100 million Series A funding round, with a valuation of$ 1.1 billion.
Abnormal Security: This AI-driven email security company, Abnormal Security, completed a $250 million funding round, with a valuation exceeding$ 5 billion.
Groq: An AI chip startup, Groq, completed a $640 million Series D funding round, with a valuation exceeding$ 3 billion.

July Funding Highlights

World Labs: Founded by renowned AI researcher FeiFei Li, World Labs completed a $100 million funding round, with a valuation exceeding$ 1 billion.
Harvey: A legal technology company, Harvey, completed a $100 million Series C funding round, led by Google Ventures, with participation from OpenAI, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia, with a valuation of$ 1.5 billion.
Hebbia: Hebbia, which uses generative AI to search large files, completed a $130 million funding round, with a valuation of$ 700 million.
Skild AI: A robotics technology company, Skild AI, completed a $300 million Series A funding round, with a valuation of$ 1.5 billion.

June Funding Highlights

Bright Machines: Completed a $106 million Series C funding round, led by BlackRock.
Etched.ai: Focusing on producing chips that run AI models faster and cheaper, Etched.ai completed a $120 million Series A funding round.
EvolutionaryScale: Specializing in biological AI models for therapeutic design, EvolutionaryScale completed a $142 million seed funding round.
AKASA: A healthcare revenue cycle automation platform, AKASA, completed a $120 million funding round.
AlphaSense: Completed a $650 million Series F funding round, led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners.

May Funding Highlights

xAI: Elon Musk's xAI secured a $6 billion Series B funding round, bringing its valuation to$ 24 billion.
Scale AI: Completed a $1 billion Series F funding round, led by Accel.
Suno: An AI music creation platform, Suno, completed a $125 million Series B funding round.
Weka: Completed a $140 million Series E funding round, led by Valor Equity Partners.
CoreWeave: Completed an $1.1 billion Series C funding round, led by Coatue.

April Funding Highlights

Blaize: Completed a $106 million Series D funding round.
Augment: Completed a $227 million Series B funding round.
Cognition: Completed a $175 million funding round.
Xaira Therapeutics: Completed a $1 billion Series A funding round.
Cyera: Completed a $300 million Series C funding round.

March Funding Highlights

Celestial AI: Completed a $175 million Series C funding round.
FundGuard: Completed a $100 million Series C funding round.
Together AI: Completed a $106 million Series A funding round.
Zephyr AI: Completed a $111 million Series A funding round.

February Funding Highlights

Glean: Completed a $203 million Series D funding round.
Figure: Completed a $675 million Series B funding round.

January Funding Highlights

Kore.ai: Completed a $150 million Series D funding round.

This overview underscores the continued robust investment interest in the AI sector, with companies across various applications and infrastructure receiving significant capital injections. The sheer scale of funding secured by xAI and OpenAI highlights their positions at the forefront of this rapidly evolving industry.