The Practical AI Showwith Olga Pechnenko and Chris Pearson
Week 33

Weekly AI Funding Report, Week 33

Defense AI Wrote The Biggest Check

The biggest AI check of the week was built for the battlefield.

Covered on Episode 49 of the Practical AI Show. Source: Crunchbase, AI companies only.

AI funding this week
$7.28B
Share of all venture $
43%
AI companies funded
74
Biggest round
$1.8BHelsing
Tracked so far
$400.0Bacross 33 weeks

The week in brief

AI raised $7.28B across 74 companies, about 43% of all venture dollars. The largest round wasn't a model lab or a chatbot: it was Helsing at $1.8B, a European defense-AI company, the biggest defense-tech round in European history. Right behind it, Fireworks AI raised $1.505B and crossed $1 billion in revenue. Those two checks alone were 45% of the AI week. One more surprise: Europe out-raised China, $2.65B to $1.19B, on the back of Helsing and Daniel Ek's Neko Health.

Of 220 funded companies this week, 74 (34%) were AI, taking $7.28B of the $16.76B total raised (43%). Two rounds define it: Helsing's $1.8B and Fireworks' $1.505B together are 45% of the entire AI week. Strip both and the rest of the market raised $3.98B, a healthy but ordinary week under two very loud checks.

Where the money went

  • United States$3.17B

    The deepest market by both dollars and deal count, led by Fireworks, Chai Discovery, and Walden.

  • Europe$2.65B

    Punched above its weight: Helsing's $1.8B plus Neko's $700M pushed Europe ahead of China this week.

  • China$1.19B

    Steady, led by ModelBest's $590.9M model round and a wave of robotics.

  • Rest of world$130M

    (incl. Canada).

  • Asia-Pacific (ex$China) — $80M

  • Middle East & Africa$60M

The top five AI rounds

  1. Helsing $1.8B

    Series E · Munich, Germany · $18B valuation · defense AI

    Builds the AI software behind military drones and battlefield decisions. Europe's largest defense-tech round ever, and the single biggest AI check of the week.

    Kept in the AI total because it is a genuine AI software company, not a hardware maker like the drone companies we cut.

  2. Fireworks AI $1.505B

    Series D · Redwood City · $17.5B valuation · Nvidia-backed · AI infrastructure

    A platform to build, tune, and run AI apps on open-source models. Just crossed $1 billion in annual revenue.

  3. Neko Health $700M

    Series C · Stockholm, Sweden · AI health

    Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek's full-body scanning company. AI reads thousands of data points per scan to catch disease early.

  4. ModelBest $590.9M

    Series C · Beijing, China · foundation models

    Chinese lab building efficient large language models that run on smaller devices instead of giant data centers.

  5. Chai Discovery $400M

    Series C · San Francisco · AI for science

    Uses AI to design proteins and molecules for new drugs. Part of the AI-for-science wave.

Also notable: Walden Robotics $300M SEED (physical AI, $1.1B valuation out of stealth), Zhuji Dynamics $200M (general-purpose robots), AIsphere $139M (generative video).

  • Defense AI went vertical. Helsing's $1.8B is Europe's largest defense round ever. AI-for-defense is now a mega-scale fundable category.
  • The infrastructure layer keeps printing. Fireworks at $1B ARR, plus a run of AI-chip startups (Listenai, TYLsemi, Quadric).
  • Europe beat China this week. Helsing and Neko pushed Europe to $2.65B, ahead of China's $1.19B, a rare flip.
  • "Seed" isn't small anymore. Walden's $300M seed at a $1.1B valuation, straight out of stealth.
  • Physical AI is loud. Walden, Zhuji, and a wall of robotics money behind the headlines.