Mega-Rounds Drive $4.75 Billion in Weekly Tech Funding

Ventures focused on AI infrastructure, defense manufacturing, and nuclear energy dominated venture capital activity in the week ending August 8, securing $4.75 billion across 14 disclosed funding rounds. Three individual deals surpassed the $1 billion threshold, highlighting investor appetite for large-scale physical and energy infrastructure.

Automated defense and aerospace factory developer Hadrian secured the largest transaction, raising $1.37 billion in a Series D round. Investors included WCM Investment Management, Washington Harbour, Valor Equity, 137 Ventures, JPMorgan, and Baillie Gifford. Meanwhile, Base Power closed a $1 billion Series D round to expand residential and grid battery capacity aimed at supporting artificial intelligence workloads.

Nuclear startup Valar Atomics also raised $1 billion in a Series B round led by Sequoia's Shaun Maguire, alongside Atreides, Point72, and Snowpoint, valuing the small modular reactor company at $6 billion post-money. In early-stage deal activity, stealth startup Riven Corp, founded by former Radical AI team members, raised $4.5 million, while fabric-care brand WashWise secured $1.2 million in pre-seed funding from FJ Labs and Singh Capital.

Looking ahead, legal AI startup Harvey is reportedly seeking at least $500 million in fresh capital. The potential deal will test investor appetite for frontier-lab-style valuation multiples within the legal technology sector.

Key terms explained:

Series D: A late-stage round following three earlier institutional raises, usually funding major expansion in production or markets.

Series B: The second major institutional round, raised once early results justify scaling up spending.

Seed round: A startup's first funding, used to build its initial product and team.

Valuation: The total value placed on a company when a round closes, set by what investors will pay for a stake.

Small modular reactors: Miniature nuclear reactors built in factories and shipped ready-made, pitched as faster and cheaper than conventional plants.

Grid batteries: Storage systems connected to the electricity network that discharge at peak hours, reducing the need for additional power plants.

AI load: The electricity drawn by servers training and running AI models — far heavier than conventional computing demand.