The week's two biggest startup deals cut across geographies. In the U.S., Databricks closed a $5 billion funding round at a $190 billion valuation led by Coatue, Blackstone, MGX, T. Rowe Price, and new backer Sixth Street Growth — the largest single round of 2026 and a 36 percent markup on its prior $140 billion mark from late 2025. In China, humanoid-robot maker Unitree Robotics confirmed it will list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on August 19 after raising 6.1 billion yuan (roughly $905 million) in last week's IPO pricing.
Databricks: The $190 Billion Mark
The Series K, disclosed Wednesday, takes total Databricks funding above $11 billion and values the data platform at $190 billion post-money. Coatue and Blackstone led the equity check with MGX contributing a Middle East-anchored strategic stake, while T. Rowe Price and Sixth Street Growth filled out the syndicate. The filing underscores that enterprise appetite for AI-native data infrastructure remains price-insensitive at the top of the market — Databricks crossed $3.7 billion in annualized revenue earlier in Q2, with Mosaic AI and Databricks SQL posting triple-digit year-over-year growth.
Q2 2026: Cooley's $85.7 Billion Quarter
The round closes a quarter in which Cooley's Q2 2026 Venture Financing Report records $85.7 billion of invested capital across 166 financings — up materially quarter-on-quarter and dominated by a single large late-stage tech deal. Series Seed and Series D-and-later volumes declined, while Series A and Series C volumes rose, a pattern Cooley attributes to AI-focused seed and growth-stage funds concentrating capital in fewer, larger names.
Unitree: From Demo to IPO in Three Months
Unitree, which claims to be the world's biggest humanoid robot maker by sales, will debut on Shanghai's main board on Wednesday at a price band implying an opening market cap above $11 billion. The company raised 6.1 billion yuan in the IPO pricing, and unveiled its new "Superman" humanoid on Monday in a coordinated press event. The robot achieves a 2-meter standing vertical jump and a top speed of 12.66 m/s from legs only 0.85 meters long — performance metrics the company says exceed the human standing high-jump and 100-meter world records combined. Unitree developed the system in just over three months.
Why the Pair Matters
Databricks and Unitree sit at opposite ends of the AI stack but are linked by the same thesis: capital flowing into companies that turn raw model or hardware capability into enterprise- or consumer-grade products. Databricks will use part of the $5 billion to expand Mosaic AI's GPU footprint and broaden Lakehouse Federation across Asia-Pacific, while Unitree's IPO proceeds are earmarked for an additional 1.2-million-square-meter factory in Hangzhou.
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