January again showed platforms driving shifts in monetization, distribution, and hyperscaler CapEx. OpenAI began U.S. ad tests for free users, expanded safety gating for minors, pushed ChatGPT Go globally at $8/month, and opened a ChatGPT Health waitlist while acquiring Torch for ~$60M in stock. It also signed a three-year ServiceNow partnership to embed AI agents into enterprise workflows and continued its legal fight with Elon Musk over restructuring. Nvidia unveiled the Vera Rubin platform at CES, and broadened Mercedes-Benz DRIVE deployments while adding another $2B into CoreWeave. Meta launched Meta Compute and guided to $115–$135B of 2026 CapEx, while Google lifted 2026 CapEx to $175–$185B, expanding Apple and Walmart integrations.
Financing snapped back with $62.9B across 117 transactions, led by mega-rounds in frontier labs and infrastructure. xAI raised $20.0B Series E (Valor Equity Partners, Fidelity; also QIA/MGX/StepStone), and Anthropic raised $20.0B Series G (GIC, Coatue). Nvidia made a $2.0B strategic investment in CoreWeave, while DayOne raised $2.0B (Coatue) and Skild AI $1.4B (SoftBank). Kraken’s $1.0B formal spin-off (D1) plus Waabi ($750M), StepFun ($717M), Etched ($500M), and Moonshot AI ($500M) completed the top ten. Volume was amplified by dual $20B rounds and infrastructure megachecks.
Stepmark Partners 