AI funding frenzy continues as startups raise billions and unicorns multiply
July 13, 2026 at 06:25 PM
Coverage
20 reports · over 225 hours
Reed Jobs would rather talk about curing cancer than his last name | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Oratomic raises $300M to build a viable quantum computer that needs only 20K qubits | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Hugging Face's CEO on why companies are done renting their AI | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Elon Musk praises Mythos/Fable, promises not to 'cut off' Anthropic | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Meta enters the crowded AI coding battle with Muse Spark 1.1 | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Mercor is in talks for a $20B valuation | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Paris-based AI voice startup Gradium raises $100M seed, backed by Nvidia | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Nandan Nilekani leaves GP role at Fundamentum as it launches $200M third fund | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Lovable reportedly in talks to double its valuation to $13.2B | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
With EU backing, QuantumDiamonds aims to speed up chip manufacturing | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Crypto VC firm Paradigm raises $1.2B to invest in 'technical frontier' startups | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Prime Intellect raises $130M Series A to help enterprises build their own AI agents | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
These AI startups are growing revenue at faster and faster rates | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Solo GP Ashley Smith announces second $25M fund to back startups in AI, security and more | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Hot French startup ZML releases free product to speed inference across lots of AI chips | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
AI chip maker SambaNova raises $1B at $11B valuation, 5 months after last mega round | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
VC firm Chemistry is raising $500M for its second fund | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Almost 90 new unicorns have been minted so far this year — here they are | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Thiel Capital’s Jack Selby nabs stakes in hot startups like Etched through Arizona connections | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)
Melinda Gates’ venture firm backs Magnify Ventures' $46.6M Fund II | TechCrunch
(opens the publisher’s site)Venture capital pours into AI companies across chips, agents, and infrastructure, with startups reporting record-fast revenue growth and nearly 90 new unicorns minted in 2026.
- Oratomic raised $300 million to build a quantum computer using 10,000 to 20,000 qubits; CEO Dolev Bluvstein said the company has demonstrated all core components at smaller scale.
- SambaNova raised $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation and named JPMorganChase as an inference-infrastructure partner; CEO Rodrigo Liang said banks want heterogeneous infrastructure.
- Mercor passed $2 billion in annualized revenue run rate and is in talks for a $20 billion valuation, founder Brendan Foody announced.
- Nearly 90 venture-backed startups reached unicorn status in 2026, the majority focused on AI, according to Crunchbase and PitchBook data.