附近上门

This is a monthly feature that runs down the month鈥檚 top 10 funding rounds in the U.S. Check out September鈥檚 biggest rounds here.

led the way last month and it really wasn鈥檛 even close. However, there were lots of other big raises 鈥� as a startup had to raise more than $200 million to make October鈥檚 list as investors were very willing to open their checkbooks for megadeals.

1. , $6.6B, artificial intelligence: OpenAI announced its long-awaited raise of $6.6 billion at a post-money valuation of $157 billion led by . The new round makes the creator one of the most valuable private companies in the world and also included investment from the likes of , , , , , and Abu Dhabi-based MGX. It also was 厂辞蹿迟叠补苍办鈥檚 would invest $500 million in the round. The new round comes just as the company is facing myriad issues, including an exodus of higher-up employees and a restructuring change to switch it from a nonprofit to a for-profit benefit corporation and to give co-founder equity in the company. The funding structure seems to take those factors into account, as it came in the form of convertible notes and allows for investors to ask for their money back if the change is not completed within two years and removes the cap on returns for investors. The new round is bigger than the $6 billion round 鈥檚 generative AI startup, , officially announced in May, which up to this point was the largest round raised this year.

2. , $900M, energy: Another huge AI-related round. Pacific Fusion, a startup attempting to create a nuclear fusion-based energy source, raised more than $900 million in a Series A led by . The funding does depend on the company hitting certain milestones 鈥� which were not spelled out. The round further illustrates investors’ appetite for energy sources that can meet AI鈥檚 immense power needs.

3. (tied) , $500M, energy: Back in 2022, the Denver-based company was helping power Bitcoin mining by harnessing natural gas that is typically burned during oil extraction and putting it toward powering the data centers needed for mining 鈥� raising a $350 million Series C equity round led by , at $1.75 billion valuation in the process. Well, Crusoe has now turned its energy to AI 鈥� literally. The company is a so-called 鈥渘eocloud鈥� 鈥� a data center firm providing outsourced cloud computing for those looking to build AI. That business plan was enough for Crusoe to lock up a $500 million round led by at a $3 billion valuation. Founded in 2018, the company has raised $1.2 billion, .

3. (tied) , $500M, artificial intelligence: Poolside closed a $500 million Series B led by . The new round valued the startup at $3 billion, . The startup builds artificial intelligence software for programmers. Poolside is just one of a handful of big deals recently in the AI coding space. In August, San Francisco-based , which also develops AI models to write software, raised a $320 million round, and AI-powered coding assistant closed a $150 million Series C. Poolside has since being founded in May 2023.

3. (tied) , $500M, energy: Rockville, Maryland-based X-energy raised a Series C-1 of approximately $500 million, anchored by . The company is developing advanced small modular nuclear reactors for clean energy generation. Amazon and X-energy are collaborating to bring more than 5 gigawatts of new power projects online across the United States by 2039. Founded in 2009, X-energy has raised more than $785 million, .

3. (tied) , $500M, digital marketing: Marketing tech platform Insider raised a $500 million Series E led by to fund its expansion in the U.S. and AI product development.聽 The latest funding comes about 18 months after . The New York-based company declined to disclose its valuation with the latest round. Insider, which was co-founded in Istanbul in 2012, has now raised $772.1 million from investors, per 附近上门. The company said it operates in 28 countries around the world and counts big names such as , , , , and among its customers.聽

7. , $405M, renewable energy: Form Energy, a renewable energy company developing and commercializing multiday energy storage systems, raised a $405 million Series F led by . Long-duration energy storage has proven to be a tough nut to crack, but Form has been able to get some commercial traction as it looks to ramp up manufacturing operations and commercial deployments of its iron-air battery systems. The Somerville, Massachusetts-based company, founded in 2017, has raised a total of $1.5 billion in a mix of equity and grants, .

8. (tied) , $400M, biotech: Yet another big biotech raise last month, as Kailera Therapeutics announced its launch with a $400 million Series A financing co-led by , and . The new Boston-based company is developing several clinical-stage injectable and oral therapies to help with chronic weight management.

8. (tied) , $400M, data centers: Lightmatter, a startup that uses light to link chips together and to do calculations for the deep learning necessary for AI, locked up a $400 million Series D led by new investor at a $4.4 billion valuation. The new round nearly quadruples its previous valuation of $1.2 billion in December after a $155 million raise led by 鈥� which along with also participated in the new round. As Big Tech pours hundreds of billions of dollars into new AI data centers, Lightmatter is trying to solve the problems around energy consumption and scalability of those new centers. The company鈥檚 tech uses silicon photonics that can speed up processes while also using less power. Although the idea of using light in computing isn鈥檛 new, creating the components has historically been challenging. Founded in 2017, Lightmatter has raised $850 million, per the company. Lightmatter鈥檚 was not the only large raise by a photonic startup last month. 鈥� a New York-based startup also using photonics technology to address the energy, performance and scalability challenges of AI data centers 鈥� raised a $44 million Series A led by with investment from the likes of and .

10. , $300M, fintech: Part of the beauty of being a homeowner is having equity in that home. Unfortunately, accessing that equity can sometimes be burdensome. San Diego-based Splitero offers homeowners another option to do just that and last month the startup locked up $300 million through a strategic investment from funds managed by to further that mission. Splitero offers homeowners a lump sum of cash in exchange for a share of their home鈥檚 future value. Founded in 2021, the company has raised nearly $318 million, .

Big global deals

The biggest deal outside the U.S. came from across the Pacific.

• China-based , a developer and operator of data centers, raised $1 billion from institutional private-equity investors.

Methodology

We tracked the largest rounds in the 附近上门 database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the month of October 2024. Although most announced rounds are represented in the database, there could be a small time lag as some rounds are reported late in the month.

Editor’s note: Insider was added to this list on Nov. 1 after announcing its latest funding was announced late on Oct. 31. 10. , which raised $225 million in October, fell off the list.聽

Illustration: