Analysis
Six US companies raised $2.63 billion in equity across one week in mid-August, and the distribution tells you where the dollar-weighted center of venture now sits. The Crunchbase weekly tally put defense and AI infrastructure at the top of the list.
- Castelion -- $800 million equity plus $250 million debt at $13 billion (JPMorgan Chase, Andreessen Horowitz, Carlyle): hypersonic strike missiles, Torrance, California. Pulse covered the $13 billion mark. Competitors: Anduril, Lockheed Martin's hypersonics program.
- Etched -- $700 million at $21 billion (Jane Street): transformer-specific inference silicon, San Jose, founded 2022. Pulse covered the Jane Street round. Competitors: Groq, Cerebras, Nvidia.
- Higgsfield -- $400 million at $5.4 billion (DST Global): AI video tools, San Francisco, with more than 18 investors in the Series B.
- Groq -- $350 million at $3.5 billion (Disruptive, Nvidia): 13 global data centers, San Francisco. Pulse covered the neocloud pivot.
- Wispr Flow -- $280 million at $2 billion (Menlo Ventures): voice-to-text.
- Rillet -- $100 million at $1 billion (Iconiq Capital): AI accounting software, San Francisco, its third financing inside twelve months.
“Pulse covered the $13 billion mark.”
Two numbers stand out against each other. Etched raised $700 million at $21 billion -- a 30x forward multiple on a company with no meaningful shipped revenue -- while Groq raised half as much at one-sixth the valuation despite operating 13 data centers. The market is paying for architectural bets, not for deployed capacity. And Castelion's $250 million debt tranche alongside $800 million of equity is the detail growth investors should sit with: defense hardware has become creditworthy enough that a bank will lend against it pre-revenue at scale.
Update (September 3, 2026): Pulse has follow-up coverage — Global VC Funding Jumped 122% in August From a Year Ago.
