AI Funding in October: $60.6B across 543 rounds, and the investors who did the most deals

AI startups raised $60.6B across 543 venture rounds in October, by AI Lounge's deal database. Two companies took 58% of it: OpenAI ($20B) and DeepSeek ($15B). Take those two out and the rest of the market still raised $25.6B in one month, with 296 seed and pre-seed rounds underneath it. The money at the top is going to compute, chips and models; the volume at the bottom is going to applied AI.

These numbers count each company once per month and leave out public offerings, bonds, debt and rounds that were only reported as talks.

October by stage

Series C and later: 135 rounds, $51.8B
Series A: 79 rounds, $4.1B
Seed: 227 rounds, $2.6B
Series B: 33 rounds, $1.9B
Pre-seed: 69 rounds, $157M

The biggest rounds

OpenAI $20B (growth, final tranche), led by SoftBank and Nvidia, valued at $852B. San Francisco.
DeepSeek $15B (growth), led by CATL and Tencent, valued at $90.8B. Hangzhou.
Lambda $4B (pre-IPO), led by Coatue and Blackstone, valued at $14.5B. San Jose.
Tenstorrent $1.5B (Series E), led by Trace Capital and Innovation X Advisors, valued at $6.2B. Toronto.
Flapping Airplanes $1B (Series A), led by Lux Capital and Index Ventures, valued at $6B. San Francisco.
TypeSafe AI $870M (Series A), led by Andreessen Horowitz, valued at $7.5B. San Francisco.
Fractile $771M (Series C), led by Lightspeed and Redpoint, valued at $6.4B. London.
Modal $750M (Series D), led by Accel, valued at $15.8B. New York.
FuriosaAI $620M (Series D), led by the National Growth Fund of Korea, valued at $2.9B. Seoul.
Bedrock Robotics $600M (Series C), led by CapitalG and Emergence Capital, valued at $4.1B. San Francisco.
Legora $550M (Series E), led by Atreides Management, valued at $8.8B. Stockholm.

The most active AI investors in October

Y Combinator: 25 companies, 3 led
Andreessen Horowitz: 16 companies, 7 led ($1.1B led, including TypeSafe AI)
Sequoia Capital: 13 companies, 5 led
Nvidia: 12 companies, 4 led (including OpenAI)
SV Angel: 12 companies, 1 led
General Catalyst: 11 companies, 4 led
Khosla Ventures: 9 companies, 5 led
Lightspeed Venture Partners: 8 companies, 6 led ($1.2B led, including Fractile)
Accel: 8 companies, 4 led ($1.2B led, including Modal and Legora)
Alumni Ventures: 8 companies
Peak XV Partners: 7 companies, 4 led
8VC: 7 companies, 2 led
Lux Capital: 7 companies, 1 led (Flapping Airplanes, $1B)

If you're raising, these are the firms writing the most AI checks right now. Lightspeed and Khosla led more than half the rounds they joined, and a16z led 7, more than anyone else, so those three are the ones setting terms.

Every round, with its investors and valuation: AI Lounge Deals