17 US AI Startups Raise $100M+ in Jan–Feb 2026, Mega-Rounds Signal Strong Investor Appetite

Seventeen US-based AI startups closed funding rounds of $100 million or more during January–February 2026, continuing the heavy investor interest seen in 2025. Major disclosed deals include Anthropic’s $30 billion Series G (valuation $380 billion), xAI’s $20 billion Series E, ElevenLabs’ $500 million Series D (valuation $11 billion), Runway’s $315 million Series E (valuation $5.3 billion), Baseten’s $300 million infrastructure round (valuation $5 billion) and Fundamental’s $255 million (valuation $1.4 billion). Funding was concentrated in AI infrastructure, enterprise/developer tools, generative media, robotics and healthcare AI. Trends noted: more nine‑figure rounds at earlier stages (seed/Series A), increased strategic corporate participation (Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures and other cloud/compute players), and geographic concentration in Silicon Valley with specialised pockets in the Northeast. The surge is lifting valuations and expanding runway for compute‑heavy R&D but raises sustainability and exit-risk questions if product deployments or revenue lag. For crypto traders, the flow signals continued institutional confidence in AI infrastructure and cloud-accelerated stacks — sectors that can support equities and compute/cloud‑adjacent crypto projects and tokens tied to decentralized compute, storage, or AI platforms. Short‑term effects may include increased M&A activity and upbeat risk sentiment for related assets; longer term, elevated valuation multiples and talent competition could create downside risk if monetization stalls. (Main keyword: AI funding; secondary keywords: AI startups funding, AI infrastructure funding.)