
Eclipse Raises $1.3B to Back and Build Physical AI
Eclipse Ventures closed two funds totaling $1.3B to build and back physical AI companies in robotics, defense, and manufacturing as investor conviction shifts from software to machines.
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Eclipse Ventures closed two funds totaling $1.3B to build and back physical AI companies in robotics, defense, and manufacturing as investor conviction shifts from software to machines.

Anthropic acquires Coefficient Bio, an eight-month-old stealth startup with fewer than ten employees, in a $400M all-stock deal to push into pharmaceutical AI.

Q1 2026 set an all-time venture capital record with $300 billion invested globally, and AI startups captured $242 billion of it - four mega-rounds alone accounted for 64% of every dollar deployed.

OpenAI closed its funding round at $122 billion and $852 billion valuation on March 31, with $3 billion going to retail investors via banks for the first time.

The 15-person startup that launched an H100 GPU into space last November just became the fastest Y Combinator company ever to reach unicorn status.

Physical Intelligence is in talks to raise $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation, doubling in four months, as investors pour capital into AI software designed to run robots in the real world.

Shield AI closed a $2B raise at a $12.7B valuation, more than doubling from $5.3B a year ago, to fund its Hivemind autonomous pilot software and acquire Pentagon simulation vendor Aechelon Technology.

Kleiner Perkins closes a $3.5B dual fund - its largest raise in the current era - betting on Anthropic, Harvey, and a 2026 IPO window.

Swedish legal AI platform Legora closes a $550M Series D led by Accel, tripling its valuation to $5.55B in five months on the back of rapid US expansion.

Crunchbase data shows February 2026 was the biggest startup funding month in history, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Waymo absorbing $156 billion of a record $189 billion total.

An OECD report reveals AI firms captured 61% of global venture capital in 2025 at $258.7 billion, doubling their share since 2022, while mega-deals above $1 billion account for half of all investment value.

OpenAI has finalized a $110 billion funding round backed by Amazon, NVIDIA, and SoftBank, valuing the company at $730 billion pre-money. But $35 billion of Amazon's commitment hinges on an IPO or AGI milestone.