Physical AI startups raised $47.4B in H1, quadrupling H2 2025

Global venture funding for physical AI reached $47.4 billion across 521 deals in the first half of 2026, according to Crunchbase News, nearly four times the $12 billion invested in H2 2025 and about 80% above H1 2025's $26.4 billion.

One deal did most of the lifting. Waymo's $16 billion Series D in February, at a $126 billion valuation, co-led by Alphabet, Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global and Sequoia Capital, accounted for roughly a third of the H1 total. The round landed in the middle of a robotaxi expansion arc that our AV tracker has been following closely, including Waymo's clearance for paid rides across 18 California counties.

"Even our mobile phones now have LIDAR scanners on them," Ryan Ziegler, general partner at Edison Partners, told Crunchbase, "democratizing the ability to map objects and spaces." He added that "the costs to build these companies have come down, and AI infrastructure and multi-modal tech to do so is now available."

Waymo was not the only outsized round. Anduril Industries raised $5 billion in May at a $61 billion valuation, roughly double its $30.5 billion mark from less than a year earlier. Shield AI closed a $2 billion Series G at $12.7 billion in March, co-led by Advent International and JP Morgan Chase. Saronic pulled in a $1.75 billion Series D at $9.25 billion the same month, led by Kleiner Perkins, bringing its total funding to about $2.6 billion. Our robotics tracker has logged 155 stories over the past 90 days, with Gravis Robotics' $200M SoftBank round to retrofit excavators among the more recent entries.

Joe Fath, partner and head of growth at Eclipse Capital, told Crunchbase that "tech barriers are plummeting, experienced talent is pouring in, and market demand is rising," and that "the technical and economic conditions are now catching up to that longstanding conviction."

The exit market moved too. SpaceX went public in June, raising $75 billion at a $1.77 trillion valuation. HawkEye 360's IPO raised $416 million, Aevex's raised $320 million, and Mobileye bought Mentee Robotics for roughly $900 million.

The six-month tally now sits above the $41.9 billion that physical AI companies raised across all of 2022 through 2024 combined.