February underscored the growing tension between rapid AI adoption and government, security, and consumer trust as agents went mainstream. OpenAI raised a record $110B at a ~$730B valuation (Amazon $50B, Nvidia $30B, SoftBank $30B) but drew backlash after signing a Department of War model-usage deal, with reported ChatGPT uninstalls up 295% and Claude briefly #1 in the iOS App Store. Anthropic amplified the moment with Super Bowl ads and a tougher stance on guardrails as Washington flagged them as “supply chain risk.” Alphabet posted $403B FY25 revenue (+15% YoY), issued $32B of bonds to fund CapEx, and struck a multi-year TPU rental deal with Meta. Perplexity launched “Computer” and announced Samsung OS-level distribution across ~800M Galaxy S26 devices.
Financing surged to $157.6B across 163 transactions, dominated by mega-rounds in frontier labs and AI infrastructure. Beyond OpenAI’s $110B raise, Anthropic announced a $30B Series G led by GIC and Coatue at a ~$350B pre-money valuation, while Databricks raised $5B with Goldman Sachs, Glade Brook, and Morgan Stanley. Hardware and new-model bets also scaled, including Cerebras’ $1B Series H (Tiger Global) and $1B rounds for Ineffable Intelligence (Sequoia) and World Labs (AMD, Nvidia). Late-stage leaders included Apptronik ($520M), ElevenLabs ($500M), MatX ($500M), and Vestwell ($385M). Overall, February marked peak capital intensity and scrutiny.
Stepmark Partners 