"This year, a handful of top AI startups-some now so large that calling them "startups" feels vaguely ironic-have raised not just one giant round of funding, but two or more. And with each round, the startups' valuations are doubling, sometimes even tripling, to reach astonishing new heights. Take Anthropic. In March it raised a $3.5 billion Series E at a $61.5 billion valuation. Just six months later, in September, it pulled in a $13 billion Series F round. New valuation: $183 billion."
"OpenAI, the startup that ignited the AI boom with ChatGPT, remains the pace setter, fetching an unprecedented $500 billion valuation in a tender offer last month. That's up from the $300 billion valuation it garnered during a March funding round, and the $157 billion valuation it started off this year with as a result of an October 2024 funding. In other words, in the 12 months between October 2024 and October 2025, OpenAI's valuation increased by roughly $29 billion every month-almost $1 billion per day."
"It's not just the LLM giants. Further down (but still high on) the AI food chain, recruiting startup Mercor in February raised its $100 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation-and then by October raised another $350 million as the company's valuation leapt to $10 billion. Well over a dozen startups have raised two or more funding rounds this year with escalating valuations, including Cursor, Reflection AI, OpenEvidence, Lila Sciences, Harmonic, Fal, Abridge, and Doppel."
A cohort of top AI startups secured multiple large funding rounds within the same year, producing rapid, often exponential valuation increases. Anthropic moved from a $61.5 billion valuation in March to $183 billion by September after successive rounds. OpenAI's valuation climbed from $157 billion to $500 billion across several funding events, averaging about $29 billion of growth per month over a year. Smaller but fast-growing companies like Mercor rose from $2 billion to $10 billion within months. More than a dozen AI companies completed two or more rounds this year, with several pursuing third rounds as valuations surged.
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