Investors Have Poured $94.3B Into 119 'Neolabs' Betting on Research Before Revenue
WhatTheLJW · x · 2026-09-02
Leonis Capital's deep dive analyzes 'neolabs'—AI companies organized around a research bet, where training frontier models precedes any product. Key facts: since 2024, investors have committed $94.3B across 119 AI research labs, most pre-revenue and some pre-product by design; only 16 disclose any revenue. Marquee examples include Thinking Machines ($2B raised at a $12B valuation pre-launch), Project Prometheus ($12B at $41B valuation pursuing an 'artificial general engineer' for the physical world), and Jeff Dean's Discovery Loop (reportedly raising $1B at $10B valuation). The essay argues this is one of the largest research-before-revenue bets in VC history, and examines which investor segments are actually funding and pricing these labs.
Related event: 119 New AI Labs Have Raised $94.3B in VC's Biggest Research-First Bet(2 posts)→
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