AI funding boom: Baseten raises $1.5B in largest U.S. round

What happened

Baseten, which provides software to run AI applications, raised $1.5 billion（約2400億円） in Series F funding at a $13 billion（約2.1兆円） valuation. AI-focused deals dominated the week's top 10 largest U.S. funding rounds, with nine of the ten largest rounds going to AI companies.

Why it matters

AI inference technology—the step where an AI produces answers from a trained model—continues to attract the biggest venture checks. Baseten's round was its fourth fundraise in 18 months, signaling sustained investor confidence in AI infrastructure companies.

What to watch

Groq, another AI inference provider, raised $650 million（約1000億円） in the same week. The round came just over six months after Nvidia hired away Groq's founder and key team members and licensed its technology, yet the company secured new backing to scale its cloud infrastructure.