This column is a look back at the week that was in AI. Read the previous one here.

Before the year started, we pontificated there might be a slowdown in venture dollars and for the first few weeks it was looking like that prediction might be borne out.

While the first half of January saw some nice-sized funding rounds for AI startups, extremely big rounds were nonexistent. In fact, there were no rounds of $100 million or more until the month’s waning days (both Rebellions.ai and Kore.ai announced big raises on Jan. 30).

Overall, the month saw less than $2.2 billion go to AI startups, per Crunchbase data. That came after a year that saw more than $50 billion invested in the AI space.

February, however, has told a very different story — highlighted this week with reports China’s artificial intelligence startup Moonshot AI raised more than $1 billion in a funding round led by the Alibaba Group Holding and HongShan, formerly Sequoia Capital China.

In total, the first three weeks of the month have already seen more than $2.6 billion invested — including a half-dozen rounds of $100 million or more — with still a week-and-a-half left.

Aside from the Moonshot AI raise — the first $1 billion AI round of the year — other large rounds in the last week-plus include:

• San Jose, California-based Lambda raised a $320 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund. The company offers cloud computing services and hardware for training artificial intelligence software.
• San Francisco-based Sierra, a conversational AI company, raised $110 million led by Sequoia Capital and Benchmark at a reported valuation of nearly $1 billion.
• Recogni, which is developing its AI inference chip for both the generative AI and automotive industries, raised a $102 million Series C co-led by Celesta Capital and GreatPoint Ventures. The San Jose-based company says its accelerator chip uses live data in trained models for predictions — all while requiring less energy.

On top of all of that, it has been reported other big-name AI startups such as Scale AI and Perplexity AI may be raising at big valuations.

That predicted slowdown — which many VCs really believed was coming — seems to be more mythical than the unicorn.

Things that caught our eye and other stuff:

• It was a couple of healthcare tech startups that raised money this week that caught our attention. First up, Nashville, Tennessee-based UnityAI locked up a $4 million seed round led by Max Ventures. The company uses AI to improve hospital bed management, resource allocation and patient care. It wasn’t that long ago a pandemic threw hospital management for a loop and caused administrators headaches. Perhaps AI could have helped.
• Next up is Paris-based AZmed. The startup raised a Series A worth approximately $16.2 million. AZmed used AI tech to automatically detect fractures in X-rays — allowing doctors to spend more time on more immediate, life-threatening exams and procedures. Doctors have a limited amount of time, and several startups seem determined to use AI to free up more of that time.

Related Crunchbase Pro query:

• Rounds Raised By Startups Using AI In 2024

Related reading:

• AI Compute Startup Lambda Hits $1.5B Valuation After Massive $320M Raise
• Generative AI Chip Designer Recogni Locks Up $102M

Illustration: Dom Guzman