China's record $15.9B AI round powers a strong October for VC

Just when it seemed the biggest AI funding rounds were all going to U.S. startups, China delivered a record-setter. DeepSeek raised a staggering $15.9 billion in October, the largest venture financing ever for a Chinese company. That deal helped push global startup investment to $59 billion for the month, up 45% year over year, Crunchbase data shows. But the concentration of capital continues to be extraordinary: Just seven billion-dollar-plus rounds accounted for more than half of that total. Plus, three charts further illustrate the widening divide between record venture funding and falling deal counts, last week's biggest rounds included $2.1 billion for manufacturing and $1 billion for prediction markets, and we find travel tech funding is heading for a multiyear low.

Global venture funding totaled $59 billion in October, up 45% year over year, Crunchbase data shows, with China accounting for an unusually large share of the month's investment. DeepSeek raised $15.9 billion at a $90 billion valuation, the largest venture round ever for a Chinese company, helping push funding to China-based startups to $20.6 billion — a monthly level not seen since 2018. Other enormous rounds went to manufacturing company Re:Build, energy infrastructure startup Axiom Solutions International, spend management platform Ramp, and chipmaker Tenstorrent. All told, AI-focused companies captured 64% of global funding in October, while M&A remained active with nine billion-dollar-plus acquisitions.

Record venture investment is coinciding with fewer funding rounds across important parts of the startup market, Crunchbase data shows. Nearly $680 billion flowed into startups globally through Q3, but much of the increase is concentrated in enormous financings. In Q3 alone, just 27 companies raising billion-dollar-plus rounds captured about one-third of all funding. Meanwhile, North American venture deal counts fell 16% year over year even as funding dollars jumped 50%. We use three charts to illustrate the widening gap between the startups attracting record amounts of capital and those facing an increasingly difficult fundraising environment, particularly at the seed and early stages.

Startup investors wrote some enormous checks last week, led by a $2.1 billion financing for manufacturing company Re:Build and a $1 billion Series G for prediction market Kalshi, which reached a $40 billion valuation. Construction automation startup Bedrock Robotics followed with a $600 million round, while other sizable investments went to companies spanning biotech, batteries, defense tech and enterprise AI.

That’s how much frontier lab DeepSeek raised last month, at a valuation of $90 billion. The deal marks the largest-ever venture deal for a China-based company and pushed total global venture funding in October to $59 billion.