AI Funding This Week: $2.8B across 41 rounds (Oct 12 to Oct 18)

Between October 12 and October 18, 41 AI venture rounds disclosed a combined $2.8 billion. The pattern I'd point to is that AI infrastructure and inference sat behind the biggest checks, led by Modal's $750 million Series D, while Series A was the most common stage. For founders raising, selling, or growing, that suggests investors are paying closest attention to the layer that runs AI workloads, so being precise about where your product sits in that stack will matter.

• Modal raised $750M (Series D), led by Accel, valued at $15.8B. AI infrastructure / inference, New York, US.
• Infinigence AI (无问芯穹) raised $324M (Series C). AI infrastructure / inference cloud, Shanghai, China.
• MHX Technology (Shanghai Mahe Xin Technology) raised $243M (Initial equity round), led by Hangzhou Jingtao and BlueRun Ventures, valued at $2.56B. AI chips / automotive edge AI, Shanghai, China.
• Astribot (Stardust Intelligence) raised $149M (Venture round), led by Shenzhen Investment Holdings, valued at $2.24B. Embodied AI / humanoid robotics, Shenzhen, China.
• Faao Robotics (法奥机器人) raised $145M (Series C+ and D), led by Meituan Longzhu and Meituan. Industrial embodied AI / collaborative robots, Jiangsu, China.
• Salience Labs raised $125M (Series B), led by Bullhound Capital. AI infrastructure / photonic networking chips, Oxford, UK.
• Skeleton Technologies raised $100M (Strategic investment), led by Siemens, valued at $1B. AI data center power and energy storage, Tallinn, Estonia.
• Mueon raised $65M (Series A), led by Maverick Silicon. AI semiconductors / data center infrastructure, Portland, US.
• North.cloud raised $60M (Series B), led by PeakSpan Capital. Cloud and AI spend management, New York, US.
• Dougs raised $58M (Growth equity), led by Expedition Growth Capital. AI accounting services, Lyon, France.
• Albert (Albert Invent) raised $55M (Series B), led by TCV, valued at $340M. Chemistry AI / materials R&D software, Oakland, US.
• Harmonic Security raised $50M (Series B), led by Crosspoint Capital. AI security / data protection, San Francisco, US and London, UK.

• Series A: 11
• Growth: 10
• Series B: 8
• Seed: 5
• Other: 2
• Series C: 2
• Series D: 2
• Pre-seed: 1

• Accel: 5 rounds, 4 led
• BoxGroup: 3 rounds
• IVP: 2 rounds, 2 led
• Hitachi Ventures: 2 rounds, 1 led
• General Catalyst: 2 rounds, 1 led
• Intel Capital: 2 rounds

Every round, with investors and valuations: lounge.ai/deals

• Ryan Allis at The Lounge Desk