What are the most valued startups in the foundation model market?

Last updated: 13 July 2026

Explore our monthly updated ranking of the most valuable startups in the foundation model market.

market research pitch 2026

In our updated market reports, you will find everything you need

The foundation model market includes companies building general-purpose, multimodal, voice, video, robotics, scientific and biological AI models.

This ranking compares 98 startups using their latest reported valuations or carefully constructed valuation estimates.

We update this list every month as funding rounds, public market values, acquisitions and operating signals change.

A quick summary table

Metric Value
Most valuable foundation model startup Anthropic, $1.0T–$1.2T
Second most valuable foundation model startup OpenAI, $800.0B–$900.0B
Median foundation model startup valuation Approximately $1.2B
Share of foundation model value captured by the top 10 Approximately 92.2%
Top foundation model valuation versus median Approximately 917 times
Median valuation-to-capital-raised ratio Approximately 5.9 times
Foundation model startups valued at $1B+ 55

Top startups in the foundation model market ranked by valuation

Here is an updated table that ranks the top startups in the foundation model market based on their latest reported or estimated valuations.

# Startup Name What They Do Current Valuation ($) Valuation Confidence Level Valuation Type Evidence Status Total Funding ($) Funding Confidence Level
1 Anthropic Builds Claude AI models $1.0T–$1.2T Partial Confidence Proxy-Based Estimate Estimated $15.0B Partial Confidence
2 OpenAI Builds frontier AI models $800.0B–$900.0B Partial Confidence Proxy-Based Estimate Estimated $57.9B Partial Confidence
3 xAI Builds Grok foundation models $200.0B–$230.0B Partial Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $17.0B Partial Confidence
4 Zhipu AI GLM foundation model platform $100.0B+ Full Confidence Public Market Cap Observed $2.0B Partial Confidence
5 DeepSeek Open reasoning AI models $52.0B–$59.0B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $7.4B Partial Confidence
6 Safe Superintelligence Develops safe superintelligent AI $29.0B–$34.0B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Estimated $3.0B Strong Confidence
7 Reflection AI Builds open frontier AI models $20.0B–$24.0B Partial Confidence Active Raise Valuation Estimated $2.1B Strong Confidence
8 Moonshot AI Kimi long-context AI models $18.0B–$22.0B Partial Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $2.0B Partial Confidence
9 Skild AI Builds foundation models for robots $14.0B–$15.0B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $1.8B Strong Confidence
10 Mistral AI Builds open-weight AI models $13.7B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $3.0B Strong Confidence
11 MiniMax Builds multimodal consumer AI models $12.9B Full Confidence Public Market Cap Observed $1.8B Partial Confidence
12 Thinking Machines Lab Develops multimodal frontier AI systems $11.0B–$13.0B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Estimated $2.0B Full Confidence
13 ElevenLabs Builds voice and audio models $11.0B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $781M Strong Confidence
14 StepFun Builds multimodal foundation models $10.0B–$12.0B Partial Confidence IPO or Listing Range Valuation Estimated $7.0B+ Low Confidence
15 Physical Intelligence Develops general robot intelligence $10.0B–$12.0B Partial Confidence Active Raise Valuation Estimated $1.1B Full Confidence
16 Replit AI application-building platform $9.0B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $877M Partial Confidence
17 Midjourney Generates images from text $7.0B–$10.0B Partial Confidence Revenue or ARR Multiple Estimate Estimated $0M Full Confidence
18 Essential AI Builds enterprise foundation models $7.5B–$9.5B Low Confidence Active Raise Valuation Estimated $65M Full Confidence
19 Cohere Enterprise language model platform $6.8B–$7.2B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $1.0B Strong Confidence
20 Periodic Labs Builds autonomous AI scientists $6.5B–$7.5B Partial Confidence Active Raise Valuation Estimated $300M Full Confidence
21 Suno Generates music from text prompts $5.4B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $775M+ Strong Confidence
22 Runway Generative video and world models $5.3B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $860M Full Confidence
23 World Labs Builds spatial world models $4.5B–$5.5B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Implied $1.2B Partial Confidence
24 AMI Labs Builds real-world learning models $4.5B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Implied $1.0B Strong Confidence
25 HeyGen Creates business avatar videos $3.5B–$5.0B Partial Confidence Revenue or ARR Multiple Estimate Estimated $66M Strong Confidence
26 Luma AI Multimodal video and world models $4.0B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $1.1B Strong Confidence
27 Synthesia Creates enterprise avatar videos $4.0B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $536M Strong Confidence
28 Xaira Therapeutics Integrated AI drug discovery $3.0B–$4.0B Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $1.0B Strong Confidence
29 Black Forest Labs Builds FLUX visual foundation models $3.3B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $450M Partial Confidence
30 Higgsfield AI Generates social advertising videos $2.5B–$4.0B Partial Confidence Revenue or ARR Multiple Estimate Estimated $138M Strong Confidence
31 Baichuan AI Chinese large language models $2.8B–$3.5B Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $1.0B Strong Confidence
32 Poolside Foundation models for software development $2.5B–$3.5B Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $626M Strong Confidence
33 AI21 Labs Enterprise reliable language models $2.0B–$3.8B Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $636M Partial Confidence
34 Windsurf AI coding IDE and agents $2.4B–$3.0B Partial Confidence Acquisition Value Estimated $243M Strong Confidence
35 Sakana AI Develops nature-inspired AI models $2.7B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $365M Partial Confidence
36 Insilico Medicine AI-designed drug discovery platform $2.7B Full Confidence Public Market Cap Observed $807M Partial Confidence
37 CuspAI Discovers materials using generative AI $2.4B–$2.8B Strong Confidence Active Raise Valuation Estimated $130M Strong Confidence
38 Character.AI Consumer AI character chatbots $2.0B–$2.7B Partial Confidence Acquisition Value Observed $190M Strong Confidence
39 Liquid AI Builds efficient general-purpose models $1.7B–$2.3B Partial Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Estimated $297M Strong Confidence
40 Writer Enterprise generative AI platform $1.7B–$2.3B Strong Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $326M Full Confidence
41 Sarvam AI Indian sovereign language models $1.5B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $275M Strong Confidence
42 Magic Builds AI software engineers $1.2B–$1.8B Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $465M Strong Confidence
43 Odyssey Builds interactive world simulation models $1.5B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $337M Strong Confidence
44 Genesis Therapeutics AI small-molecule drug discovery $1.1B–$1.8B Low Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Estimated $280M Strong Confidence
45 Lila Sciences Automates scientific discovery laboratories $1.3B–$1.5B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $550M Full Confidence
46 Deepgram Provides real-time voice AI APIs $1.3B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $216M Partial Confidence
47 Chai Discovery Designs therapeutic proteins with AI $1.3B Full Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $230M Full Confidence
48 Owkin Develops biomedical AI foundation models $1.0B–$1.6B Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $304M Partial Confidence
49 01.AI Open-source Yi model family $1.0B–$1.5B Low Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $300M Partial Confidence
50 ModelBest Builds efficient on-device AI models $1.0B–$1.3B Partial Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Estimated $100M Low Confidence
51 PixVerse Generates videos from prompts $1.0B–$1.3B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $360M Full Confidence
52 Enveda Biosciences Discovers drugs from natural chemistry $1.0B–$1.2B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $510M Partial Confidence
53 Ideogram Generates text-accurate images $900M–$1.3B Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $97M Full Confidence
54 Generate Biomedicines Generative biology drug development $1.0B Full Confidence Public Market Cap Observed $1.1B Full Confidence
55 Reka AI Develops efficient multimodal AI models $900M–$1.1B Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Estimated $168M Strong Confidence
56 Twelve Labs Understands and searches video $670M–$1.3B Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $207M Full Confidence
57 Krutrim Indian AI cloud and models $800M–$1.1B Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $75M Partial Confidence
58 Profluent Designs functional proteins with AI $800M–$1.1B Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $150M Full Confidence
59 Nous Research Develops decentralized open AI models $700M–$1.1B Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $70M Partial Confidence
60 Stability AI Open generative media models $700M–$1.1B Low Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $181M Strong Confidence
61 Hume AI Builds emotionally intelligent voice models $700M–$1.1B Partial Confidence Revenue or ARR Multiple Estimate Estimated $63M Full Confidence
62 Adept AI Automates software workflows $700M–$1.0B Low Confidence Proxy-Based Estimate Estimated $415M Strong Confidence
63 EvolutionaryScale Protein-generating biological AI models $650M–$1.0B Low Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $142M Full Confidence
64 Imbue Develops reasoning-focused AI agents $650M–$950M Low Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $232M Full Confidence
65 Tessl Builds AI-native software development tools $650M–$900M Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $125M Full Confidence
66 Aleph Alpha Sovereign enterprise AI models $500M–$900M Low Confidence Revenue or ARR Multiple Estimate Estimated $533M Partial Confidence
67 Cartesia Builds low-latency voice models $500M–$800M Strong Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $191M Partial Confidence
68 Cradle AI-assisted protein engineering platform $500M–$800M Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $102M Full Confidence
69 Inflection AI Builds personal AI assistants $620M–$650M Partial Confidence Acquisition Value Observed $1.5B Strong Confidence
70 Krea AI Unified creative AI workspace $500M–$700M Strong Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $83M Strong Confidence
71 Pika Consumer AI video generation $470M–$700M Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $135M Full Confidence
72 Captions Creates and edits AI videos $450M–$650M Partial Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $100M Partial Confidence
73 Contextual AI Enterprise retrieval-augmented language models $400M–$650M Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $100M Full Confidence
74 Orbital Materials Designs materials and industrial hardware $330M–$630M Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $71M Strong Confidence
75 Basecamp Research Biological data foundation models $350M–$600M Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $85M Partial Confidence
76 AssemblyAI Provides speech recognition model APIs $300M–$500M Partial Confidence Revenue or ARR Multiple Estimate Estimated $115M Partial Confidence
77 Inceptive Designs RNA medicines using AI $300M–$500M Low Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $120M Strong Confidence
78 Tavus Builds conversational video humans $270M–$500M Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $64M Strong Confidence
79 Bria AI Builds licensed visual AI $270M–$400M Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $65M Strong Confidence
80 Kyutai Develops open-source multimodal AI models $250M–$400M Low Confidence Proxy-Based Estimate Estimated $0M Full Confidence
81 Latent Labs Generative models for protein design $250M–$400M Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $50M Strong Confidence
82 Leonardo.Ai Generates creative images and videos $320M Strong Confidence Acquisition Value Observed $31M Partial Confidence
83 Bioptimus Builds universal biological AI models $220M–$350M Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $76M Full Confidence
84 Aignostics Builds pathology foundation models $180M–$320M Low Confidence Revenue or ARR Multiple Estimate Estimated $54M Full Confidence
85 Nabla Bio Generative therapeutic protein design $160M–$260M Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $37M Full Confidence
86 Atomic AI AI-driven RNA structure discovery $140M–$260M Low Confidence Proxy-Based Estimate Estimated $42M Full Confidence
87 Udio Generates music using AI models $120M–$250M Low Confidence Comparables-Based Estimate Estimated $10M Full Confidence
88 Tabnine Private enterprise coding assistant $125M–$210M Low Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $102M Partial Confidence
89 Resemble AI Generates voices and detects deepfakes $90M–$160M Partial Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $25M Partial Confidence
90 PlayAI Built conversational voice AI models $80M–$150M Low Confidence Acquisition Value Estimated $22M Strong Confidence
91 Nomic AI Open embeddings and local models $70M–$115M Low Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $17M Partial Confidence
92 Gnani.ai Automates enterprise voice interactions $80M–$95M Strong Confidence Announced Private Round Valuation Observed $18M Partial Confidence
93 Murf AI Creates enterprise AI voiceovers $60M–$110M Low Confidence Revenue or ARR Multiple Estimate Estimated $12M Full Confidence
94 Haiper Develops generative video models $55M–$100M Low Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $19M Full Confidence
95 Riffusion Generated music using diffusion models $40M–$90M Low Confidence Acquisition Value Estimated $4M Full Confidence
96 Entalpic Discovers chemicals and sustainable materials $40M–$70M Low Confidence Implied Valuation from Raise Implied $9M Full Confidence
97 LightOn Provides enterprise generative AI software $44M Full Confidence Public Market Cap Observed $16M Strong Confidence
98 WellSaid Labs Creates enterprise synthetic voice content $25M–$40M Partial Confidence Revenue or ARR Multiple Estimate Estimated $12M Strong Confidence

Key valuation trends in the foundation model market

Insights

  • The top 10 foundation model startups capture approximately 92% of the combined midpoint valuation, showing that market value remains highly concentrated among a small number of frontier laboratories.
  • Anthropic and OpenAI account for approximately $1.95T of combined midpoint valuation, or about 74% of the total value represented in this foundation model ranking.
  • The median foundation model startup is valued at approximately $1.2B, while Anthropic’s midpoint valuation is about 917 times higher, highlighting the market’s unusually wide valuation distribution.
  • Safe Superintelligence, Skild AI, Mistral AI and Thinking Machines Lab represent approximately $71.7B in combined midpoint valuation against $9.8B in funding, reflecting the premium placed on frontier research teams.
  • ElevenLabs and Suno carry a combined valuation of $16.4B after raising approximately $1.6B, showing that specialized audio and music models can support economics comparable with major language-model companies.
  • Runway, Luma AI and Synthesia represent $13.3B in combined valuation after raising about $2.5B, confirming that generative video has become a substantial foundation model category.
  • CuspAI’s midpoint valuation is approximately 20 times its funding base, illustrating the scarcity premium attached to foundation models for materials discovery and industrial science.
  • Synthesia is valued at about 7.5 times cumulative funding, compared with approximately 3.6 times for Luma AI, suggesting that enterprise distribution can improve capital efficiency in generative video.
  • Lila Sciences, Chai Discovery and CuspAI represent approximately $5.3B in combined value, showing that scientific foundation models are forming a meaningful category beyond text, image and video generation.
  • Fifty-five companies in the ranking have reached or crossed a $1B midpoint valuation, which shows how broadly foundation model value has expanded across software, robotics, media and biology.

A few word about our methodology

As you can see, we built a database that ranks foundation model startups based on their current valuation.

Estimating foundation model startup valuations is not always straightforward. Many companies do not publicly disclose their valuation, and the available information can vary widely depending on the company and its stage.

To build this ranking, we applied a structured valuation methodology and cross-checked information across multiple reliable sources.

Whenever possible, we relied on direct disclosures. These include announced valuations from completed funding rounds, public filings for listed companies, or official acquisition prices.

When a foundation model company is publicly listed, we use its current market capitalization as the reference valuation.

If a foundation model startup was acquired and no independent valuation can reasonably be estimated today, we use the acquisition price as the main reference point.

When a startup recently raised capital but the valuation was not disclosed, we estimate the implied valuation using typical dilution levels for that stage of fundraising.

In some cases, we also estimate valuations using operating metrics such as revenue, ARR, customer traction or model usage, combined with valuation multiples from comparable foundation model companies.

When direct financial data is not available, we may rely on carefully selected comparable startups and other signals such as hiring growth, investor quality, technical performance, product adoption or commercial traction.

All estimates follow a strict evidence hierarchy. Recent funding rounds with announced valuations carry the most weight, followed by strong operating metrics and comparable company analysis.

We also carefully evaluate the age of every data point. Recent information carries more weight, while older data is treated cautiously and adjusted conservatively when necessary.

Whenever information is uncertain or incomplete, we clearly distinguish between confirmed facts and reasonable inferences.

Because valuation data is not always fully public, each foundation model startup in the ranking is assigned a confidence level based on the reliability, recency and consistency of the available evidence.

Full confidence means the valuation is supported by strong and recent evidence. Strong confidence means the estimate is well supported but includes minor inference. Partial confidence means the estimate relies more heavily on indirect signals. Low confidence means available information is limited or inconsistent.

When confidence is lower, we take a more conservative approach by widening the valuation range. This helps reflect the uncertainty and increases the probability that the true valuation falls within the estimated range.

In a world where LLMs hallucinate and unreliable information is everywhere, our goal is simple: provide data you can trust.

If you want the full detail on a specific valuation estimate, feel free to contact us and we will gladly explain.

Finally, know that we update the dataset once per month, so come back here if you need fresh information.

Related blog posts

- What are the latest fundraising trends in the foundation model market?

- Which companies have raised the most funding in the foundation model market?

- Is fundraising strong in the foundation model market right now?

- A full list of funding deals in the foundation model market

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