AI Research Startup Flapping Airplanes Raises $1B at $6B Valuation

San Francisco-based AI research startup Flapping Airplanes has raised $1B in funding at a $6B post-money valuation, quadrupling its valuation from a previous round in January despite having no commercial products yet. Index Ventures and Lux Capital led the financing round, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Alphabet's GV, and Kleiner Perkins, while Nvidia is also an investor in the company. Founded in late 2025 by Asher Spector, Ben Spector, and Aidan Smith, the startup focuses on training AI models using less data and less compute while writing custom software to run Nvidia GPUs more efficiently and flexibly. Co-founder Asher Spector noted that with massive capital flowing into AI data centers and hardware, extracting even 10% more performance from each chip offers substantial economic value. "The basic thesis is demand for AI is going to outpace chip and data supply. The company that's going to be most successful, and create the most value for the world, is the one that can squeeze the most out of the inputs." — Asher Spector, Co-founder of Flapping Airplanes.