August extended the scale-first AI cycle as monetization gains were matched by larger compute and infrastructure commitments. OpenAI said ChatGPT surpassed 1B weekly active users and 2M businesses, while Ads reached a $1B annualized run rate; it also completed a ~$7B employee tender at an $852B valuation and prepared to wind down Cursor model access after SpaceX’s acquisition. Anthropic’s reported compute commitments with Volta, Riot, Nscale, and Lambda exceeded $99B as annualized revenue topped $65B, alongside discussions of a $100B+ IPO and ~$2T valuation. Nvidia backed initial OpenAI leases with residual-value guarantees up to $105B, agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $12.9B, and posted $96.2B quarterly revenue. Stripe acquired OpenRouter, while DeepSeek pursued ~$7.4B at a ~$74B valuation as open-weight distribution broadened.
Financing totaled $19.0B across 106 transactions, with capital concentrated in infrastructure, research, and hardware. Databricks led with a $5.0B strategic round backed by Coatue, Blackstone, MGX, T. Rowe Price, and Sixth Street, followed by firmus at $2.0B and River at $1.1B. Valar Atomics and Poolside each raised $1.0B, while Lambda secured $926M of debt and XPENG raised $900M+. Etched added $700M for AI chips, and Higgsfield and Lovable each closed $400M rounds. Despite lower volume, the mix underscored continued investor preference for compute-intensive platforms and scaled deployment.