OpenAI may get most of the attention, but these two dozen companies are finding their way in AI by making vibe-coding software, building robots and developing drones.
By Rachel Metz, Dina Bass and Shirin Ghaffary
Illustrations by liorzh (Gabriel Picard)
October 28, 2025 at 7:00 AM EDT
Three years after OpenAI launched ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence frenzy has entered a new phase. The top AI developers are spending unprecedented sums on data centers, chips and talent to build better and more widely adopted models, stoking concerns about a bubble in the process. Meanwhile, a growing number of billion-dollar startups are trying to bring AI advances to every corner of the economy. The venture capital spigot is still flowing, with almost $200 billion poured into AI startups in 2025 as of early October. OpenAI remains dominant, but a newer crop of companies is finding traction by creating more humanlike robots or releasing vibe coding services that let nonprogrammers develop software. Here are two dozen of the most influential and best-funded startups you should know about.
The Other Model Makers
Although a handful of companies with very deep pockets dominates the market for cutting-edge AI models, some startups continue to angle for a piece. Paris-based Mistral, whose investors include leading chipmaker Nvidia Corp. and chipmaking machine builder ASML Corp., has become Europe’s best hope for a homegrown AI model. It’s also joining with Nvidia to build data centers in France. Humain, a Saudi Arabian AI company owned by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, recently introduced an Arabic chatbot geared toward Arabs and Muslims. And China’s DeepSeek, a maker of open AI models, rattled the US stock market earlier this year by showing the industry that it doesn’t always cost billions of dollars to build powerful artificial intelligence.
Humain
Location
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Raised
reportedly has $100 billion in funding from Saudi Public Investment Fund
The Vibe Coders
Tech leaders have raved about AI’s potential to transform all types of work, and the clearest example so far is happening on their home turf, where a group of rapidly growing startups is offering AI tools to speed up code writing and debugging. Cursor (formerly Anysphere), the most prominent of the bunch, is aimed at experienced coders. It snagged its first million users by word of mouth. Lovable and Replit have also emerged as “vibe coding” leaders, helping users with varying levels of expertise make apps and websites simply by typing prompts.
The Content Creators
As AI models get better at generating all kinds of media, startups see a huge opportunity to disrupt Hollywood. Runway AI Inc. can turn a text prompt into a high-resolution video; Netflix Inc. and Walt Disney Co. have tested its tools. Suno lets users generate songs in seconds, complete with human-sounding vocals. And Black Forest Labs, a cutting-edge image-generation startup, is forging partnerships with Meta Platforms Inc., Adobe Inc. and other companies.
Black Forest Labs
Location
Freiburg, Germany
The Foundation Builders
Tech companies are spending heavily on data centers, chips and high-quality data to train and run AI systems, creating a juicy market for startups making those building blocks. Crusoe Energy Systems, which specializes in large AI data center projects, helped develop the first facility in OpenAI’s ambitious Stargate project. Lightmatter Inc. aims to create a novel type of chip that uses light waves to speed data transfers. And Mercor, which hires experts to help companies train AI models, has landed top clients such as OpenAI.
Lightmatter
Location
Mountain View, CA
The Roboticists
AI has given renewed traction to the long-running effort to embed robots more deeply into our everyday life. Physical Intelligence Inc., backed by Jeff Bezos and OpenAI, is building AI software to help robots learn any task. Agility Robotics Inc. has begun deploying a humanoid robot in warehouses to help with repetitive work, such as loading and unloading bins. And Dexterity Inc., a startup that builds industrial robots capable of humanlike finesse, has worked with FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc.
Dexterity
Location
Redwood City, CA
The New Defense Contractors
The rise of a new kind of warfare, defined by AI and cheap drones, has galvanized startups to create defense technology for patriotism and profit. Anduril Industries Inc., whose co-founders include Oculus creator Palmer Luckey and Founders Fund partner Trae Stephens, is the largest of the bunch, with billions of dollars in funding and federal contracts for its unmanned aircraft and autonomous submarines. Shield AI, a smaller rival, has the capacity to make thousands of aerial vehicles per year capable of vertical takeoff and landing. In Europe, Helsing is leading an ascendant defense tech sector with autonomous weapons for the skies and seas.
Helsing
CEO(s)
Torsten Reil, Gundbert Scherf
The Office Workers
Dozens of companies are vying to build the Microsoft Office of the AI era. Glean Technologies Inc., which uses AI to help businesses find information, is valued at $7.2 billion. Pigment, in Europe, offers AI financial planning tools to rival Excel; its Fortune 500 customers include Coca-Cola, Snowflake and Unilever. And Granola, an AI notetaking service, has become a favorite among tech power users. Of course, Microsoft Corp. also wants to offer the Office of the AI era, as does Microsoft-backed OpenAI.
Pigment
CEO(s)
Eléonore Crespo, Romain Niccoli
The OpenAI diaspora
OpenAI’s enduring influence can be seen in the billion-dollar companies started by its employees. Former Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati announced in July that she had raised $2 billion in seed funding for Thinking Machines Labs, with a team of dozens of former OpenAI staffers. Safe Superintelligence Inc., a secretive research lab from former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, is valued at $32 billion. And AI material science startup Periodic Labs, co-founded by Liam Fedus, a former vice president for research, recently became the latest unicorn to emerge from OpenAI’s ranks.
Safe Superintelligence
Location
Palo Alto, CA & Tel Aviv
Periodic Labs
CEO(s)
Liam Fedus, Dogus Cubuk
—With assistance from Mark Bergen, Agnee Ghosh and Lizette Chapman
Sources: Company data, Bloomberg reporting, PitchBook data
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