All the fundraising deals in the edge AI market (from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026)
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The edge AI market, which covers AI inference running close to where data is generated rather than in centralized cloud data centers, raised over $4.9 billion across 43 deals between Q1 2025 and Q1 2026.
Robotics and humanoid companies dominated the fundraising activity, capturing nearly $3 billion on their own, while autonomous mobility and edge chip companies also attracted significant capital.
The pace of investment has been uneven across quarters, with Q3 2025 standing out as a breakout period for the edge AI market, driven by several landmark rounds from physical-AI companies.
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Summary table of the funding deals in the edge AI market (last 5 quarters)
We define the edge AI market as AI inference that runs on devices or compute nodes located close to where data is generated, rather than in large centralized cloud data centers.
We include AI running on end devices (such as sensors, cameras, robots, vehicles, and phones), local gateways and industrial PCs, on-premise servers at customer sites (factories, stores, hospitals, campuses), and telecom or MEC edge nodes that serve nearby users or machines.
We exclude model training infrastructure, AI workloads that run only in hyperscale or central enterprise data centers, and cloud analytics that process edge data but do not execute AI models close to the data source.
You can also read our detailed analysis to understand how funding activity in the edge AI market has evolved over the last few years.
Also, you should know that we have a dedicated page, updated weekly, with all the latest fundraising deals in the edge AI market.
| Name | What they do | Amount | Quarter | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelex Vision | Real-time AI video analytics software that detects safety and security events directly on surveillance feeds. | $7.0M | Q1 2025 | Intelex Vision |
| NEURA Robotics | Humanoid and cognitive robots that perceive, decide, and act in the physical world using onboard AI. | $139.7M | Q1 2025 | NEURA Robotics |
| Coram AI | AI-native video security software that turns existing cameras into real-time operational intelligence tools. | $13.8M | Q1 2025 | Business Wire |
| Sereact | Vision-language-action AI that lets warehouse and industrial robots handle objects in messy real environments. | $25.7M | Q1 2025 | Sereact |
| EnCharge AI | Analog in-memory AI chips that run inference with far better power efficiency than conventional processors. | $100.0M | Q1 2025 | TechCrunch |
| Apptronik | Humanoid robots built for real-world industrial work, with onboard AI for perception and task execution. | $350.0M | Q1 2025 | Apptronik |
| Augury | Industrial machine-health AI that uses sensor data to predict equipment failures before they happen. | $75.0M | Q1 2025 | Augury |
| Shield AI | Autonomy software for defense aircraft that keeps operating in disconnected, GPS-denied environments. | $240.0M | Q1 2025 | Shield AI |
| MemryX | Edge AI accelerator chips based on compute-at-memory architecture for low-power local inference. | $44.0M | Q1 2025 | PR Newswire |
| Chef Robotics | Food-production robots that use real-time onboard perception to automate repetitive line work. | $43.1M | Q1 2025 | Chef Robotics |
| Glacier | Robotic sorting systems for recycling facilities using on-site computer vision to identify materials in real time. | $16.0M | Q1 2025 | Glacier |
| Axelera AI | AI acceleration hardware for running vision and generative AI locally on edge devices, not in the cloud. | $68.0M | Q1 2025 | Axelera AI |
| ClustroAI | A containerized platform that lets enterprises run AI models locally on edge nodes instead of the cloud. | $12.0M | Q1 2025 | ClustroAI |
| Aidoptation | On-vehicle autonomy software for transportation and mobility systems, originally developed in the Indy Autonomous Challenge. | $5.0M | Q1 2025 | New Market Pitch |
| Blumind | Analog chips for always-on edge AI processing of sound, sensor, and vision data with very low power use. | $14.3M | Q2 2025 | Blumind |
| Nuro | Autonomous delivery vehicles and driving software that runs inference entirely on the vehicle in real time. | $106.0M | Q2 2025 | Nuro |
| IPercept | Predictive maintenance software that learns from factory machines directly on the shop floor. | $5.4M | Q2 2025 | IPercept |
| D-Robotics | AI chips designed specifically for robotics and embodied-intelligence systems that need local inference. | $100.0M | Q2 2025 | D-Robotics |
| Skild AI | A general-purpose foundational intelligence layer that gives robots the ability to understand and interact with the physical world. | $500.0M | Q2 2025 | Skild AI |
| RealSense | 3D depth cameras and perception hardware that give robots and drones the ability to sense their environment locally. | $50.0M | Q3 2025 | RealSense |
| MOTOR Ai | Level-4 autonomous driving software for making real-time decisions directly on the vehicle. | $20.0M | Q3 2025 | MOTOR Ai |
| 36ZERO Vision | Visual quality-inspection software for industrial manufacturing that needs very little training data to work. | $3.9M | Q3 2025 | 36ZERO Vision |
| TARS | Embodied AI robotics systems designed to operate and make decisions in physical environments. | $122.0M | Q3 2025 | TechNode |
| SiMa.ai | An edge machine-learning SoC platform designed for physical-AI workloads running close to the data source. | $85.0M | Q3 2025 | SiMa.ai |
| EDGX | Edge AI hardware for satellites so AI models can run directly in orbit instead of sending raw data to Earth. | $2.5M | Q3 2025 | EDGX |
| Nuro | Autonomous delivery vehicles and driving software that runs inference entirely on the vehicle in real time. | $203.0M | Q3 2025 | Nuro |
| FieldAI | Robot foundation models that help robots navigate and work in the field without GPS or pre-built maps. | $405.0M | Q3 2025 | FieldAI |
| Figure | General-purpose humanoid robots built for physical work, with full onboard AI for perception and movement. | $1,000.0M | Q3 2025 | Figure |
| Kodiak AI | Autonomous trucking software and vehicle stack designed for long-haul freight on North American corridors. | $212.5M | Q3 2025 | Kodiak AI |
| X Square Robot | Humanoid robots that use local AI models for autonomous movement and interaction in physical environments. | $100.0M | Q3 2025 | SCMP |
| Camera Intelligence | An AI-native camera that processes video locally on the device, eliminating the need to send footage to the cloud. | $2.0M | Q3 2025 | Camera Intelligence |
| Energy Robotics | Software for autonomous inspection robots and drones operating in industrial sites like energy and chemical plants. | $13.5M | Q4 2025 | Energy Robotics |
| Turing Inc. | Autonomous driving software purpose-built for Japan's automotive market, designed to run inference on the vehicle. | $99.0M | Q4 2025 | Bloomberg |
| Forgis | AI software that gives industrial machines more autonomy, reducing downtime and the need for human intervention. | $4.5M | Q4 2025 | Robotics & Automation News |
| Netrasemi | SoCs for computer vision, image processing, and sensor fusion designed specifically for edge devices. | $12.5M | Q4 2025 | Netrasemi |
| BrainChip | Neuromorphic processors that run AI inference at ultra-low power on edge devices. | $25.0M | Q4 2025 | BrainChip |
| Flexion | Autonomy software stack for humanoid robots, covering reasoning, perception, and whole-body motion control. | $50.0M | Q4 2025 | Flexion |
| Galbot | Humanoid robots with full-stack embodied AI capabilities for operating in the physical world. | $300.0M | Q4 2025 | PR Newswire |
| Quadric | Programmable inference-engine IP that chipmakers embed into AI chips to run models locally on devices. | $30.0M | Q1 2026 | Quadric |
| Helin | An industrial edge-intelligence platform that runs AI directly on remote assets like vessels and off-grid industrial sites. | $11.8M | Q1 2026 | Helin |
| Gather AI | Warehouse drones and AI software that give logistics operators real-time inventory visibility without manual scanning. | $40.0M | Q1 2026 | TechCrunch |
| Mirai | A runtime and inference layer that makes AI models run faster and more efficiently on phones and laptops. | $10.0M | Q1 2026 | Mirai |
| Axelera AI | AI inference chips designed to run vision and generative AI locally on edge devices, without relying on cloud compute. | $250.0M | Q1 2026 | Axelera AI |
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How has funding activity in the edge AI market changed over time?
Q3 2025 was by far the most active quarter for edge AI market funding, driven almost entirely by a cluster of mega-rounds including Figure's $1 billion humanoid round, FieldAI's $405 million raise, and Kodiak AI's $212.5 million trucking round, which together accounted for the bulk of the $2.2 billion raised that quarter.
Q1 2026 was the quietest quarter in terms of total funding at around $342 million, though it still saw five deals close, which means deal count stayed healthy even as total dollars fell sharply from the Q3 2025 peak.
Compared to Q4 2025, total edge AI market funding in Q1 2026 dropped by about 32%, and compared to Q1 2025 a year earlier, it was also down by roughly 70%, largely because Q1 2025 included Apptronik's $350 million and Shield AI's $240 million rounds that haven't been matched yet in early 2026.
If you strip out the single largest deal per quarter, the underlying edge AI market activity looks much more stable: most quarters saw between $300 million and $600 million in funding from the remaining deals, suggesting a steady and growing baseline beneath the headline mega-rounds.
| Quarter | Number of deals | Total raised ($) | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 14 | $1,139M | Strong start driven by Apptronik ($350M) and Shield AI ($240M); broad activity across chips, robotics, and autonomy. |
| Q2 2025 | 5 | $726M | Fewer deals but Skild AI's $500M round kept total funding high; one of the most concentrated quarters on record. |
| Q3 2025 | 12 | $2,206M | The breakout quarter, with Figure, FieldAI, and Kodiak AI all raising landmark rounds at the same time. |
| Q4 2025 | 7 | $505M | Galbot's $300M round dominated; activity cooled from Q3 highs but deal count stayed reasonable. |
| Q1 2026 | 5 | $342M | Axelera AI's $250M round drove most of the quarter's total; underlying deal activity was modest but consistent. |
| All quarters | 43 | $4,918M | Dominated by robotics and embodied AI mega-rounds, with a concentrated peak in Q3 2025. |
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Which startups in the edge AI market raised the largest rounds over the last months?
These startups raised the most recently in the edge AI market:
- Figure raised $1 billion in Q3 2025 because investors saw humanoid robots as the most direct path to deploying general-purpose physical AI at scale, and Figure had early customer momentum to justify the valuation.
- Skild AI raised $500 million in Q2 2025 because SoftBank, Nvidia, and Samsung bet that a shared intelligence layer for all kinds of robots could become the operating system of the physical AI world.
- FieldAI raised $405 million in Q3 2025 because its robot foundation models solve a real unsolved problem: letting robots work in GPS-denied, unmapped environments without needing constant human input.
- Apptronik raised $350 million in Q1 2025 because Google's participation and early demand for its Apollo humanoid validated that the company was one of the most commercially credible humanoid players in the US.
- Galbot raised over $300 million in Q4 2025 because China's humanoid robotics race accelerated rapidly, and Galbot's $3 billion valuation made it one of the most prominent players in that market.
- Axelera AI raised $250 million in Q1 2026 because its edge inference chips found strong commercial traction and a global investor syndicate including BlackRock and Samsung backed its plan to scale manufacturing and sales.
- Shield AI raised $240 million in Q1 2025 because defense customers needed autonomy software that works with no connectivity at all, and Shield AI's Hivemind platform was one of the only proven solutions for that use case.
- Kodiak AI raised $212.5 million in Q3 2025 because autonomous trucking is one of the highest-ROI use cases for edge AI, and Kodiak had built enough commercial momentum on North American freight corridors to attract a large institutional round.
- Nuro raised $203 million in Q3 2025 as a follow-on to its earlier Q2 extension, reflecting investor confidence in the autonomous delivery market and Nuro's position as one of the most technically mature players in that space.
- NEURA Robotics raised $139.7 million in Q1 2025 because European investors saw it as the leading humanoid robotics company coming out of Germany, with Lingotto leading and a mix of strategic and financial investors backing the cognitive robotics vision.
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You may also want to check our ranking of the most funded startups in the edge AI market as well as our list of the most valued startups.
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Is the edge AI market shifting toward smaller or bigger deals?
Across all five quarters, the average deal size in the edge AI market was around $114 million, but that number is almost entirely driven by a handful of humanoid, autonomy, and robotics mega-rounds rather than a broad shift toward larger checks.
Looking quarter by quarter, the average deal size peaked in Q3 2025 at around $184 million and was lowest in Q1 2026 at around $68 million; the pattern tracks the presence or absence of billion-dollar humanoid rounds rather than any structural change in how the edge AI market is being funded at the median.
If you exclude the top two deals per quarter, the typical edge AI market round looks much more modest, usually falling in the $10 million to $50 million range, which suggests a healthy mid-market of companies raising growth rounds without the distortion of the humanoid mega-round phenomenon.
| Quarter | Number of deals | Average deal size ($) | Deals below $2M | Deals above $50M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 14 | $81M | 0 | 6 |
| Q2 2025 | 5 | $145M | 0 | 3 |
| Q3 2025 | 12 | $184M | 0 | 7 |
| Q4 2025 | 7 | $72M | 0 | 2 |
| Q1 2026 | 5 | $68M | 0 | 1 |
| All quarters | 43 | $114M | 0 | 19 |
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How concentrated was funding activity in the edge AI market?
Edge AI market funding has been heavily top-loaded in every quarter: in Q2 2025, the single largest deal (Skild AI's $500 million round) captured nearly 69% of all dollars raised that quarter, meaning four other companies shared just 31% of the total. The same pattern held in Q1 2026, where Axelera AI's $250 million round alone represented 73% of quarterly funding.
This concentration is not a sign of a thin market but rather a signal that edge AI investors are placing a small number of very large bets on category-defining platforms, whether those are robot brains, humanoid systems, or inference chips, while the broader tail of companies raises much smaller rounds that barely move the aggregate numbers.
| Quarter | Number of deals | % by Top 1 | % by Top 3 | % by Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | 14 | 30.7% | 64.0% | 96.7% |
| Q2 2025 | 5 | 68.9% | 97.3% | 100.0% |
| Q3 2025 | 12 | 45.3% | 73.3% | 99.8% |
| Q4 2025 | 7 | 59.5% | 89.0% | 100.0% |
| Q1 2026 | 5 | 73.1% | 93.6% | 100.0% |
| All quarters | 43 | ~43% | ~77% | ~98% |
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Which categories in the edge AI market received the most funding?
Robotics and embodied AI captured roughly $3 billion, or about 61% of all edge AI market funding across the five quarters, because investors are now betting on complete physical-AI systems, not just individual components. The sheer size of rounds for Figure, Skild AI, FieldAI, Apptronik, and Galbot reflects a view that the robot platform layer is where the most durable value will accumulate in the edge AI market.
Autonomous mobility and defense attracted around $886 million across seven deals, making it the second-largest edge AI category, because on-vehicle and on-drone inference represents one of the clearest existing commercial markets where AI absolutely cannot rely on a cloud connection. Shield AI, Nuro, Kodiak AI, and Turing Inc. all raised based on demonstrated technical progress in real deployments rather than future promises.
Edge AI chips and inference silicon raised approximately $729 million across ten deals, the broadest deal count of any category, reflecting the fact that many different companies are competing to own the silicon layer but none has yet achieved the scale to raise humanoid-sized rounds. Companies like Axelera AI, EnCharge AI, MemryX, Blumind, and Quadric each raised meaningful rounds, but the category remains more fragmented than robotics or autonomy.
| Category name | Number of deals | Total raised ($) | Startups and amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robotics & embodied AI | 10 | $2,992M | Apptronik ($350M), NEURA Robotics ($140M), Sereact ($26M), Skild AI ($500M), FieldAI ($405M), Figure ($1,000M), TARS ($122M), X Square Robot ($100M), Galbot ($300M), Flexion ($50M) |
| Autonomous mobility & defense | 7 | $886M | Aidoptation ($5M), Shield AI ($240M), Nuro ($106M + $203M), MOTOR Ai ($20M), Kodiak AI ($213M), Turing Inc. ($99M) |
| Edge AI chips & inference silicon | 10 | $729M | Axelera AI ($68M + $250M), EnCharge AI ($100M), MemryX ($44M), Blumind ($14M), D-Robotics ($100M), SiMa.ai ($85M), Netrasemi ($13M), BrainChip ($25M), Quadric ($30M) |
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Who are the biggest investors in the edge AI market?
Innovation Industries is the most active named investor in this edge AI market dataset with two deals, having backed Axelera AI in both Q1 2025 and Q1 2026, reflecting a clear long-term conviction in European edge inference silicon as a strategic category worth doubling down on.
Uncork Capital also appeared in two deals, backing both Mirai and Quadric, which together represent two of the clearest pure-play on-device inference stories in the dataset, suggesting Uncork is building a deliberate position in the software and IP layer of the edge AI market.
Samsung-affiliated funds and entities participated in two deals as well, appearing in the Skild AI round and the Axelera AI Q1 2026 round, which shows that Samsung is hedging across both robot intelligence software and edge inference hardware in its edge AI market strategy.
Disclaimer: this investor list may be incomplete; we focus on publicly disclosed lead and prominent recurring investors, so some frequent minority participants may be underrepresented. "Total funded" does not represent the amount personally invested by an individual investor. Instead, it refers to the aggregate amount raised across all fundraising rounds in which the investor participated.
| Investor | Number of deals | Total funded ($) | Startups |
|---|---|---|---|
| Innovation Industries | 2 | $318M | Axelera AI (Q1 2025), Axelera AI (Q1 2026) |
| Uncork Capital | 2 | $40M | Mirai, Quadric |
| Samsung-affiliated funds | 2 | $750M | Skild AI, Axelera AI (Q1 2026) |
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Related blog posts
- A full overview of funding deals in the Edge AI market
- The startups that have raised the most funding in the Edge AI market
