During his tenure as chair from 1987 to 2006, Greenspan was renowned for his cryptic utterances on the economy, leaving rate-watchers befuddled as to whether they presaged a likely cut or hike. His wife, veteran correspondent , famously that their marriage took time because ā€œhe claims he proposed three times before I was able to understand. He was so oblique. It was like his testimony.ā€

In spite of his long history of obfuscation, however, Greenspan is best known for a fairly unambiguous two-word phrase: ā€œirrational exuberance.ā€ He coined it in a 1996 to theĀ  , a conservative-leaning think tank, titled ā€œThe Challenge of Central Banking in a Democratic Society.ā€

One of the speechā€™s core points was the notion that pricing logic in an industrial economy dominated by durable goods and materials is far simpler than for a modern economy increasingly dominated by software and services.

ā€œWhat is the price of a unit of software or a legal opinion? How does one evaluate the price change of a cataract operation over a 10-year period when the nature of the procedure and its impact on the patient changes so radically?ā€ he mused, before turning to that most famous insight.

That insight, if I am translating Greenspan-speak correctly, was linked to the question of how one can establish long-term confidence in valuations of assets tied to fast-changing technologies and business models, like software, where prior notions of unit economics no longer applied.

ā€œHow do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions,ā€ he wondered. Itā€™s a conjecture that 30 years later still has no obvious answer.

Notably, Greenspanā€™s speech actually predated the most heated periods of the dot-com boom, bubble and implosion, which began in the late 1990s and culminated with the hitting its cyclical peak in early 2000. During and shortly after that period, money-losing e-commerce companies like online grocer and pet supply retailer famously went public at then sky-high valuations before abruptly shuttering. Internet infrastructure providers fared even worse, exemplified by networking equipment maker going from Canadaā€™s most valuable company to penny stock in a couple years.

But while losers lost big, winners eventually eclipsed them. Dot-com-era megastars and , for instance, are now worth nearly $8 trillion combined.

That brings us to one of Greenspanā€™s other well-known analogies: the lottery ticket.

In Congressional testimony in early 1999, pressed for his thoughts on then fast-rising share prices of hot internet companies, the Fed chair the stock-buying frenzy to playing the lottery. He observed that people have long been willing to pay more for a lottery ticket than their chances of winning would justify, simply because they are drawn to the remote chance of a huge win.

”And undoubtedly some of these small companies, which have stock prices going through the roof, will succeed and they very well may justify even higher prices,” he said. ”The vast majority are almost sure to fail. That’s the way the markets work in this regard.”

Fast-forward to today, and one is easily drawn to apply Greenspanā€™s analogy to the current AI mania. Once again, weā€™re seeing unprecedented valuations attached to money-losing companies, many in still relatively nascent stages of development.

In other ways, however, this time itā€™s not a dot-com lottery ticket redo. For one thing, the companies in which a retail investor might be buying said ticket are by no means small. , at its current market cap, is the sixth-most valuable U.S. public company. Itā€™s priced like a winner, not a wanna-be.

Same holds true for recent valuations for and , both of which have confidentially filed for public offerings likely to debut in coming months. Anthropic hit a $965 billion post-money valuation, while OpenAIā€™s was recently around $852 billion.

One wonders what Greenspan would say about these stratospheric asset price levels. Iā€™d suspect there are better than lottery-ticket odds that it would be something cryptic.

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• The SpaceX IPO Filing Looks Nothing Like Those Of The Elite Group Of Tech Giants It’s Hoping To Join

Photo: Dr. Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, speaks at the Per Jacobsson Foundation Lecture, October 21, 2007, in Washington, DC. (Photo by International Monetary Fund Photograph/Stephen Jaffe used under the .)

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So far in 2026, U.S. companies have pulled in nearly 80% of global seed- through growth-stage financing, per 91¾«Ę· data. Thatā€™s a sharp divergence from the years leading up to the AI boom, when American companies typically secured less than half of all investment.

Gap for AI is even more pronounced

The U.S. share of artificial intelligence-related investment is even greater.

So far this year, nearly 88% of AI-related startup funding, or $319 billion, went to U.S.-headquartered companies, per 91¾«Ę· data. Of that, most went to just two recipients, and .

Since both Anthropic and OpenAI are on track for public market debuts later this year, itā€™s possible next yearā€™s comps will be less lopsided, as they wonā€™t be raising any more giant late-stage financings. Weā€™ll see.

Large venture hubs outperform small and mid-sized ones

Although no other country comes close to the U.S. for startup funding, a few of the larger technology investment hubs are seeing year-over-year gains.

Funding to Chinaā€™s startups, in particular, is on the rise after several sluggish years. So far in 2026, startups have raised over $33 billion, per 91¾«Ę· data, already surpassing the total for all of 2025.

The United Kingdom is also looking up. U.K.-based startups have pulled in $16.5 billion so far this year, compared to $19.5 billion in all of 2025. AI and fintech are the countryā€™s leading sectors for investment.

Other mid-sized venture markets are seeing funding levels this year that are on track to be flat or moderately higher year over year, per 91¾«Ę· data. In Europe, this includes France, Spain and Germany.

In Asia, India, Japan and South Korea are also neither way up nor way down. Canada and Australia, meanwhile, arenā€™t in a slump but also arenā€™t seeing any major AI-focused funding raised this year.

Maybe itā€™s a US bubble?

Now that more than three-fourths of startup funding is going to U.S. companies, it seems timely to note that the country is home to only a little over 4% of the global population.

On the tech startup front, itā€™s undoubtedly an impressive 4%. The U.S. has an unrivaled track record for building leading technology companies, along with the capital and talent to keep on doing so.

That said, certain trends do warrant some serious bubble consideration. The anomalously high concentration of startup funding into American companies is one of them.

Surely many of the countries in which the remaining 96% of people on Earth dwell possess entrepreneurial talent, infrastructure and economic might that could support more than just a measly 12% share of AI startup funding. If one was a betting type, itā€™s hard not to argue that the odds for that look pretty good.

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the weekā€™s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last weekā€™s biggest funding deal roundup here.

Big fundraising deals did not take a pause for summer this week. In the U.S., the largest financings went to enterprise software company and blockchain technology provider . The largest deals of the week, however, were for European companies, with Germanyā€™s pulling in $1.4 billion and Finnish space tech company landing $520 million.

1. , $400M, enterprise software: NinjaOne, provider of an IT operations and endpoint management platform, raised over $400 million in Series C extension funding at a $12.3 billion valuation. The Austin-based company said it grew revenue over 70% in 2025 and posted a profit in the first quarter of this year.

2. , $355M, blockchain technology: Digital Asset, a provider of blockchain technology geared for financial institutions, secured $355 million in a later-stage financing led by ā€™s crypto fund, . Founded in 2014, the New York-based company has raised at least $847 million in known funding to date, per .

3. , $350M, AI cloud infrastructure: Las Vegas-based TensorWave, an AMD AI cloud technology provider for training and inference workloads, closed on $350 million in Series B funding. and led the financing.

4. , $300M, biotech: Beren Therapeutics, a developer of therapeutics for conditions characterized by defective cholesterol trafficking, raised $300 million in equity and debt funding. The financing for the Thousand Oaks, California-based company includes $165 million in debt funding from as well as $135 million in equity investment.

5. , $200M, robotics: Standard Bots, a manufacturer of AI-native industrial robots, picked up $200 million in Series C funding. and were lead investors in the round, which set a $1 billion valuation for the New York-based company.

6. , $125M, genetic medicines: SonoThera, developer of an ultrasound-mediated genetic medicine platform, secured $125 million in Series B funding. led the financing for the San Francisco-based company.

7. (tied) , $100M, medical devices: Tempe, Arizona-based GT Medical Technologies, developer of a form of radiation therapy called GammaTile that is used at the time of brain tumor removal surgery, picked up $100 million in Series E funding led by .

7. (tied) (aka Genspark), $100M, agentic AI: MainFunc, the company behind Genspark, a developer of agentic AI tools for the workplace, reportedly $100 million in Series B extension funding at a $2.6 billion valuation. Investors reportedly included , and South Korea’s .

9. , $99.5M, biotech: Cambridge, Massachusetts-based City Therapeutics, a developer of RNA interference (RNAi)-based medicines, closed on $99.5 million in Series B funding from backers including new investors and .

10. , $85M, tools for the deaf and hearing-impaired: Rylo, developer of an app for hearing-impaired people, raised $85 million in growth funding from , and existing investors.

Outside the US

, $1.4B, robotics: Germanyā€™s Neura Robotics, a developer of AI infrastructure for robots to learn, collaborate and operate across real-world environments, says it secured up to $1.4 billion in Series C funding.

, $520M, space tech: Helsinki-based Iceye, operator of a satellite constellation for monitoring conditions on Earth, raised $520 million in a Series F funding round led by , at a valuation of over $12 billion.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 91¾«Ę· database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of June 6-12. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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The IPOĀ caps a remarkable journey for a company that raised nearly $12 billion in private investment since its founding in 2002 to become the worldā€™s most valuable venture-backed startup with a most recent private-market valuation of $1.25 trillion. Along the way, SpaceX helped redefine both the space industry and the late-stage venture market.

Its long-awaited offering raised some $75 billion and served asĀ an enormous liquidity event for Musk, who became the as a result, as well as his close friend and confidant of , who now owns a stake valued at more than $68 billion in SpaceX. It’s also a massive and successful exit for early venture and corporate investors including , , , and .

SpaceX’s offering was unconventional along several fronts. Along with the IPOā€™s record-breaking nature ā€” more than 10x larger than ā€™s $104 billion offering in 2012 ā€” the company also by setting a fixed price of $135 per share, rather than the traditional approach whereby investors and bookbuilders determine a range based on demand.

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX is also wildly unprofitable. The company posted a net loss of $4.28 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up more than 700% from a year ago. Revenue totaled $4.69 billion in Q1, up 15% from a year ago. Its megacap valuation means itā€™s slated to trade at an aggressive premium of 94x revenue.

The SpaceX offering is the first in a lineup of at least three historic IPOs this year, with generative AI giants and openly racing to make it to the public markets in coming months. Altogether, the three IPOs transfer some $3 trillion in value from the private to public markets.

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Not only is a round of $100 million not remarkably large anymore, itā€™s not even atypical. Per 91¾«Ę· data, the median U.S. late-stage round this year was exactly $100 million.

Moreover, if $100 million is supergiant, what do you call something more than 1,000x bigger, like ā€™s record-setting round this spring? That companyā€™s chatbot suggests terms such as “leviathan,ā€ ā€œcolussusā€ or ā€œtitan.ā€ Another option would be to recognize that what was once a legit supergiant round is today just a humdrum, everyday kind of deal.

The $100M+ round over 10 years

The rise of the $100 million-plus round hasnā€™t been chronologically linear, as charted below:

Initially, the category gained traction in the late 2010s, as companies such as , and scaled up late-stage financing in advance of plans for public offerings.

Around the peak of the 2021 bull market, the volume of ā€œsupergiantā€ rounds hit a cyclical peak. Dealmaking fell in subsequent years before picking up again with the rise of the AI funding wave.

Notably, more money than ever is now going into jumbo-sized rounds. However, as capital gets concentrated among a handful of hot names, deal volumes remain well below the prior peak.

Still, trends are looking up. So far this year, investors have backed 250 startup financings of $100 million or more. That puts 2026 on track for a year-over-year gain in deal count. Capital raised, meanwhile, is already at record-setting levels thanks to giant rounds for OpenAI, Ģż²¹²Ō»å others.ĢżĀ 

Median round on the rise

In tandem, the size of the median late-stage round has also risen. Per 91¾«Ę· data, the typical financing at this stage has roughly doubled since 2020, from just over $50 million to around $100 million.

And itā€™s not a small cohort either. So far this year, U.S. startups have secured 250 rounds of $100 million or more, per 91¾«Ę· data. Of those, half were for $200 million or more. Eighteen were for $1 billion more.

Valuations moving higher too, obviously

Of course, you donā€™t get ginormous startup financings without rapidly escalating valuations as well. And this year has been exceptional in delivering those.

Among U.S. startups that raised $100 million or more this year, 21 had pre-money valuations of $10 billion or more, per 91¾«Ę· data.1 Two of those ā€” Anthropic and OpenAI ā€” have filed confidentially for IPOs that could reportedly set valuations close to $1 trillion.

Bottom line: Startup investors arenā€™t just putting unprecedented sums into giant rounds;Ā  theyā€™re expecting record-setting returns as well. Weā€™ll see in coming months if public markets deliver.

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Checking in five months later, the space continues to sizzle from a startup funding standpoint, even though public markets have pulled back from the space in recent days. So far in 2026, investors have poured around $10.7 billion into seed through pre-IPO rounds for companies in 91¾«Ę·ā€™s semiconductor category. That puts funding on track to eclipse last yearā€™s levels.

Noteworthy recent rounds

Beyond , which went public last month after securing a $1 billion February pre-IPO round, a number of semiconductor-focused startups are raising considerable investor capital this year. Using 91¾«Ę· data, we put together a list of the 10 largest venture funding recipients.

One of the three largest fundraisers after Cerebras is , a developer of chips customized for the large model needs of AI labs. The Silicon Valley startup raised a $500 million Series B in February led by and .Ģż

Another moving up the ranks is , which also secured $500 million in a March Series E financing led by . The San Jose, California-based company is an AI infrastructure startup focused on optics technology, with strategic backers including and .Ģż

, a startup working on chips for AI superintelligence, reportedly also secured $500 million in new funding early this year. led the financing, which was said to set a $5 billion valuation for the Silicon Valley-based company.

The Cerebras factor

For now, the market fate of AI chip and infrastructure developer weighs heavily over the semiconductor startup space.

The Silicon Valley companyā€™s massive IPO last month raised over $5 billion and saw shares soar in first-day trading. Since then, 11-year-old Cerebras has been heading lower, with shares down about a third from the initial closing price.Ģż

Still, itā€™s far from a slacker. With a recent market cap around $50 billion, paired with rapidly rising revenues, Cerebras is finding plenty of investor support for its pitch that it is building ā€œthe fastest AI infrastructure in the world.ā€ĢżĢż

High AI valuations and enthusiasm give sector a boost

Broadly, semiconductor startups are benefiting from the more widespread investor enthusiasm around the growth of AI and their continued support for the massive infrastructure outlays it requires.

Thatā€™s visible in the public markets as well, with semiconductor indices trading near all-time highs, a pullback in recent days notwithstanding. Chip designer Nvidia, meanwhile, remains the worldā€™s most valuable public company.

The semiconductor industry is also young enough that most of todayā€™s industry behemoths began as venture-backed startups. And given the rich history of innovative upstarts unseating leading players in this space, no one is doubting the chances of that storyline repeating.

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the weekā€™s top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last weekā€™s biggest funding deal roundup here.

Startup investors were in a spendy mood this week, backing more than a dozen rounds in the multiple hundreds of millions. Of those, the biggest one went to spend-management platform , which closed on $750 million, followed by three $500 million rounds for companies in the AI and space tech sectors.

1.Ģż, $750M, finance software: Spend-management software provider Ramp secured $750 million in a financing led by , Ģż²¹²Ō»å . The round set a $44 billion valuation for the 7-year-old, New York-based company.

2. (tied) , $500M, space tech: Redondo Beach, California-based Impulse Space, a developer of spacecraft and propulsion systems for transport, moving and orbital repositioning in space, raised $500 million in Series D funding. and led the financing which brings total investment to date to more than $1 billion.Ģż

2. (tied) , $500M, AI developer tools: Supabase, provider of an open source platform for developers and AI app builders, closed on $500 million in fresh funding. led the financing, which set a $10.5 billion valuation for the 6-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

2. (tied) , $500M, foundational AI: New York-based Flourish, a startup working on artificial intelligence models inspired by the human brain, raised $500 million in initial funding. Backers include , Ģż²¹²Ō»å .

5. , $465M, fusion energy: Helion, a startup with a mission to build the worldā€™s first fusion power plant, picked up $465 million in Series G funding led by at a $15.5 billion post-money valuation. The round brings total reported funding for the Everett, Washington-based company to at least $1.5 billion, per .Ģż

6. , $435M, longevity medicines: NewLimit, a developer of medicines designed to restore youthful function in old cells through epigenetic reprogramming, closed on $435 million in Series C funding. led the financing for the South San Francisco, California-based company, which was co-founded by CEO .

7. (tied) , $400M, AI for music: Suno, a provider of AI tools for making music, raised $400 million in Series D funding led by . The round set a $5.4 billion valuation for the company, which is currently facing lawsuits from multiple music labels for training its AI on copyrighted materials.

7. (tied) , $400M, robotics: Generalist AI, a startup focused on using AI to enable robots to do complex tasks, picked up $400 million in new funding led by . The financing reportedly set a $2 billion valuation for the 2-year-old, San Mateo, California-based company.

9. , $350M, AI enterprise software: AlphaSense, an AI-enabled market intelligence and workflow orchestration platform, closed on $350 million in a new funding round led by , , , Ģż²¹²Ō»å . The round set a $7.5 billion valuation for the New York-based company.

10. , $300M, defense tech: Defense tech startup Mach Industries raised $300 million in Series C funding at a $1.8 billion valuation. and led the financing for the 3-year-old, Huntington Beach, California-based company.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the 91¾«Ę· database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of May 30-June 5. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the week.

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That trend is reflected in the May tallies for most active investors. 91¾«Ę· data showed top dealmakers werenā€™t setting any records for deal count. However, they wrote some enormous checks for those they did back.

Familiar names dominated the most active investor ranks, including regulars on our list like , and . The highest spending investors, meanwhile, included lead backers in ā€™s massive Series H last week.

For a more granular view, we broke out ranks below by category, including active lead backers, highest spending investors, and most prolific venture dealmakers.

Busiest lead investors

General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz were the most active lead investors in May, leading or co-leading six rounds each. This included some exceptionally large deals, such as ā€™s $5 billion Series H, co-led by Andreessen, and Cognitionā€™s $1 billion Series D, co-led by .

was the next-busiest lead investor, with five deals, followed by and , with four rounds each. For a broader perspective, below we chart out the 10 most active lead investors by deal count:

Highest spending lead investors

Of course, the most prolific dealmakers arenā€™t always those leading the largest rounds. For May, investors who led deals with the highest aggregate value were all co-lead backers in Anthropicā€™s massive $50 billion Series H. This included , , , and , along with , , , , and which co-led the investment.Ģż

Next on the list were and Andreessen Horowitz, which co-led Andurilā€™s $5 billion fundraise. To complete the picture, below we rank the 17 investors who led or co-led May rounds with the highest aggregate value.

Most active venture dealmakers

When we stop focusing exclusively on lead investors, the list of most active dealmakers changes up some, but not dramatically.

The most active investors in rounds of $5 million or more for May include , Andreessen Horowitz, and General Catalyst. Y Combinator typically ranks high on this list, as it commonly co-invests as a non-lead investor in follow-on rounds for startups it incubated.

For a broader picture of most active venture backers, below we ranked the top 10 for May.

Same dealmakers, bigger rounds

Overall, Mayā€™s active investor tallies painted a picture of a startup funding scene still dominated by familiar names.Ģż

Given the huge funds raised in recent years by big-name venture and growth investors, itā€™s no surprise to see them putting capital to work. Increasingly, theyā€™re doing that in the form of larger rounds, with capital flowing in particular flowing to consensus picks in AI.

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The statement was light on details and did not specify the planned offering size or where it will list. For its most recent funding round, a $65 billion Series H funding announced last week, the San Francisco company more than doubled its post-money valuation to a staggering $965 billion.

With that round, Anthropic also surpassed its closest rival, , in terms of last reported valuation. In February, OpenAI announced it had closed a $110 billion round at an $840 billion post-money valuation.

Anthropic has now raised roughly $125 billion from investors, per 91¾«Ę· data.

The path to the public markets

The IPO filing marks an escalation in the race among generative AI behemoths to make it first to the public market. That said, it could still be while.

Before making its market debut, Anthropic must still receive a sign-off from securities regulators on its confidential filing. After that, it will need to submit its public filing, carry out its pre-IPO roadshow, and put the remaining pieces in place for an offering of this presumed magnitude.

How long could it take? Itā€™s unclear, of course, but if we use as a proxy, things could proceed briskly. SpaceX, which is reportedly seeking a valuation of $1.8 trillion or more, submitted its confidential filing on April 1. The company is expected to begin trading this month, with multiple reports citing June 12 as the target date.

If Anthropic follows a similar timeline, we could potentially see a market debut in August. Before that, however, will be the public filing of its IPO prospectus, which will offer a long-awaited peek under the hood at Anthropicā€™s famously fast revenue growth and the scope of the capital expenditures it has taken to get there.

As someone who has used the word boring in IPO market headlines many times in the past, one thing that can assuredly be said is that word no longer applies.

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So far this year, investors have put about $7.8 billion into Boston-area startups, per 91¾«Ę· That puts the region on track for a moderate annual gain and the strongest tally in about four years, as charted below.

Invidious comparison

Under normal circumstances, such numbers might be celebrated as pretty strong. But many Bostonians donā€™t see it that way.

ā€œFor the first time, startups in Texas raised more VC money than those in Massachusetts,ā€ one headline this spring. Earlier this year, another correspondent concerns from local startup backers and builders that the tech startup scene is thinning out.

At root, the issue may not be that Bostonians are delivering so little investable startup talent, but rather that other places are swimming in unprecedented capital. This kind of invidious comparison is particularly stark in the AI realm.

Overall, North America venture funding hit a record high in the first quarter of this year, surging to $252 billion. Of that, more than 87% went to companies in 91¾«Ę· AI-related categories.

Few of those AI mega-fundraisers were in Massachusetts. The biggest, most heavily funded names in generative AI, like , and others, are predominantly headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. That means Boston didnā€™t get a slice of historyā€™s largest startup funding rounds.

By contrast, biotech, a traditional area of strength for the Boston area, hasnā€™t been on a funding tear. True, thereā€™s no dramatic slump. But in a time when a single venture-backed AI company can snag $122 billion in a , biotech round sizes canā€™t compete for scale.

Standout rounds

Still, by pre-AI standards of venture funding, Boston has been scaling some heavy hitters.

Per 91¾«Ę· , at least 12 companies in the greater metro areaĀ 1 raised rounds of $200 million or more this year, listed below.

The largest round went to , a provider of wearable fitness technology and a subscription platform that raised $575 million in Series G funding at a $10.1 billion valuation in March. The company says it is powered by more than 24 billion hours of physiological data and purpose-built AI models to provide predictive, personalized health insights.

, a provider of consumer privacy and security tools, came in second. It secured $375 million in Series B funding in March led by and .

Next on the list is , which provides healthcare plans to seniors on Medicare. The 9-year-old company disclosed in January that it had closed on $366 million across two Series F funding tranches.

Biotech startups, meanwhile, didnā€™t make the top 3 but were heavily represented on the list. Overall, more than half of funded startups in the list are focused on biotech or healthcare.

Why compare?

Boston isnā€™t the San Francisco Bay Area, and it certainly isnā€™t Texas. So itā€™s worth asking: What is the point of comparing startup ecosystems? Is a metro area flailing if it doesnā€™t keep up with a particular major innovation cycle, even if it maintains core areas of strength?

At risk of over-generalizing, weā€™d conclude that competitive rank still matters. A metro area can retain its crown as a startup innovation hub only if it continues to produce transformative companies.

For Boston, thereā€™s no indication the region is losing its edge in biotech and other sectors where itā€™s long been an established powerhouse. However, in the generative AI era, itā€™s also evident that the region has not produced one of the most high-valuation players in the space, and thatā€™s put some ding in the cityā€™s reputation as a leading innovation hub.

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