Billion Valuation

• Er wordt gemeld dat Tencent deelneemt aan een financieringsronde van 4 miljard dollar voor de Chinese AI-startup DeepSeek, wat de waarde van het bedrijf op ongeveer 50 miljard dollar zou schatten en zijn eerste externe financiering zou markeren. • Het rapport stelt dat de ronde nieuw kapitaal zou toevoegen aan een van China's meest gevolgde AI-modelontwikkelaars, met Tencent en andere grote investeerders onder de backers. • De deal is belangrijk omdat DeepSeek een belangrijke rivaal is geworden in de snel verlopende AI-race van China, en een waardering van meerdere miljarden dollars zou de aanhoudende belangstelling van investeerders voor frontier-model startups onderstrepen.

• Sierra, een startup voor AI-klantenervaringen, verzekerde zich op 8 mei 2026 van 950 miljoen dollar in een Series E-financieringsronde geleid door Tiger Global en Google Ventures, waarmee een waardering van meer dan 15 miljard dollar werd bereikt. • De ronde benadrukt de kracht van snelgroeiende verticale AI-bedrijven te midden van de toenemende vraag naar agentic AI-oplossingen in zakelijke omgevingen. • Deze financieringsoverwinning onderstreept het vertrouwen van investeerders in gespecialiseerde AI-toepassingen, waardoor Sierra wordt gepositioneerd als een leider in het automatiseren van klantinteracties.

• Berkshire Hathaway's cash and equivalents surged to $168 billion at the end of Q1 2026, its highest level in over a decade, as Warren Buffett continued to reduce equity holdings amid concerns over elevated asset valuations. • The conglomerate reduced its Apple stake by 8% during the quarter and trimmed Bank of America holdings further, citing a lack of compelling investment opportunities in current market conditions. • Investment income from fixed-income holdings generated $3.2 billion in the first quarter alone, demonstrating how Berkshire's massive cash reserve is now earning meaningful returns in a higher-rate environment.

• Silicon Valley-based Resolve AI secured $40M in Series A extension funding, boosting its valuation to $1.5B to establish Resolve AI Labs focused on AI models optimized for production environments. • The funding supports development of reliable AI systems tailored for enterprise-scale deployment in US tech sectors. • This round highlights investor confidence in Resolve AI's infrastructure for bridging research-to-production AI gaps amid booming demand.

• Elon Musk's xAI announced a $6 billion Series C funding round on April 19, 2026, led by Sequoia Capital, valuing the startup at $24 billion post-money. • Funds will expand the Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, to 300,000 Nvidia GPUs for Grok AI training. • Investment accelerates US AI infrastructure race, countering China's advances and supporting domestic chip production.

• Databricks announced a Series H funding round of $10 billion at a $43 billion valuation on April 18, led by existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, to accelerate development of its AI and data platform. • The funding will support expansion of Databricks' lakehouse architecture, which integrates data warehousing and data lakes, and fund aggressive hiring in engineering and sales across North America. • The round positions Databricks as one of the fastest-growing enterprise software companies and signals strong investor confidence in the competitive data infrastructure market dominated by Snowflake and others.

• Perplexity AI announced a Series D funding round of $500 million at an $8.5 billion post-money valuation on April 19, led by prominent venture capital firms and strategic investors including Nvidia and Saudi PIF. • The funding will support expansion of Perplexity's AI search engine capabilities, development of enterprise API offerings, and geographic expansion into European and Asian markets with localized language models. • The round positions Perplexity as a serious challenger to Google Search and reflects growing investor confidence in AI-powered search alternatives and conversational information retrieval platforms.

• Scale AI raised $1 billion on April 9, 2026, at $2.5 billion valuation from Accel and Founders Fund for US data labeling expansion. • Funding supports hiring 1,000 engineers in San Francisco to improve RLHF datasets for models like Llama 4. • Positions Scale as critical US AI infrastructure player, with CEO Alexandr Wang noting 'data is the new oil.'

• OpenAI reached an $852 billion valuation and launched the ChatGPT super app on April 4, 2026, integrating chat, coding, search, and AI agents into a unified platform. • The app serves 900 million weekly users, positioning it as a comprehensive AI workspace for enterprise and personal use. • This launch intensifies competition in multimodal AI tools amid surging demand for integrated platforms.

• US defense AI startup Shield AI raised $1.5 billion in Series G funding, valuing it at $12.7 billion post-money, a 140% increase from prior rounds. • The investment supports scaling autonomous drones via Hivemind AI pilot software, following a US Air Force contract and acquisition of simulation firm Aechelon. • With projected $540 million revenue this year, Shield AI leads in military AI, enhancing US drone capabilities against global threats.

• OpenAI secured $122 billion in funding, achieving an $852 billion valuation while advancing toward an AI superapp. • The massive round fuels rapid growth and preparations for a potential IPO in the US market. • This positions OpenAI as a dominant force in AI innovation, attracting top talent and resources.

• Shield AI, a San Diego-based defense tech firm, raised new funding that more than doubled its valuation to $12.7 billion on March 27, 2026. • The company projects revenue exceeding $540 million this year, driven by its Hivemind autonomy software used in drones and fighter-jet programs. • This funding underscores growing investor confidence in AI-powered military autonomy amid rising defense tech demand in the US.