AI Startups & Funding: Rounds, Valuations, IPOs

AI rounds, valuations and deals

sam altman's token deal gives yc startups 2-5 years of free production

Addy Crezee 20 May 2026 1 min read

Three men at a table under a red lamp, center figure places a paper reading +54000% between the other two

demis hassabis is the most efficient investor among ai lab ceos

Nick Trenkler 19 May 2026 1 min read

Young founder leans across a boardroom table under a spotlight, pressing a diagram while suited investors watch from the shadows

9 things a16z's speedrun team actually looks for in founders

Nick Trenkler 16 May 2026 2 min read

Man with a crowbar pries open a heavy vault door stamped 007 in a graffitied alley as yellow light spills out from the gap.

inside a16z latest cohort: what it takes to get in

Nick Trenkler 11 May 2026 4 min read

Military officer and a man in glasses sit across a $45B contract on a circuit-patterned table under a single hanging lamp.

DeepSeek nears $45B as China's Big Fund joins AI stack

Addy Crezee 6 May 2026 1 min read

Man in graffitied basement places glowing AI chips into trays — YC Spring 2026 batch tilts AI and agentic.

82% ai, 42% agentic: inside ycombinator’s spring 2026 batch

Nick Trenkler 4 May 2026 2 min read

Two men in purple and red overalls clash fists in front of a tangled, sparking server marked Enterprise in a graffitied hall.

openai raises $4B, anthropic $1.5B for enterprise rollout

Addy Crezee 4 May 2026 1 min read

Suited man brands a YC mark onto a stack of folders tagged Law, Space, Bank, and Ranch under graffitied walls and neon waves.

7 YC W26 startups raised above $500K — all vertical AI

Nick Trenkler 27 Apr 2026 1 min read

Giant robotic hand lowers Cursor tower into a neon city between $60B and $10B price tags — SpaceX's staged Cursor buyout.

SpaceX Got an Option to Buy Cursor for $60B or Partner for $10B

Addy Crezee 22 Apr 2026 1 min read

Suited men with briefcases face a chained metal gate engraved with a Chinese dragon and circuit patterns under neon purple light.

deepseek is finally taking outside money. here's why

Nick Trenkler 20 Apr 2026 1 min read

Battered armored robot signs a $414M VC contract under a spotlight in a graffitied boardroom — AI agent security funding.

Cybersecurity VC Funding to Hit $18B in 2026: Where to Build

Nick Trenkler 15 Apr 2026 1 min read

Neon colosseum: armored warrior stands over a pile of defeated robots — AI startup survival and moat metaphor.

87% of YC Startups Survive 5 Years. 90% of AI Startups Won't

Nick Trenkler 9 Apr 2026 1 min read

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