Flapping Airplanes, a year-old artificial intelligence research startup, has raised $1 billion in funding at a $6 billion valuation, led by Index Ventures and Lux Capital.
The company was founded in late 2025 by brothers Ben Spector and Asher Spector along with Aidan Smith, a Thiel Fellow and former Neuralink employee, and has yet to launch a commercial product.
Its research targets AI systems that need substantially less training data and computing power, alongside more efficient use of AI chips, an approach that runs counter to the industry's dominant strategy of scaling up datasets and compute.
Sequoia Capital partner David Cahn has described the company as a "young person's AGI lab", a framing that captures investor appetite for research-first "AI neolabs" betting on fundamental breakthroughs ahead of revenue.
The new valuation is reported to be four times the valuation in the January round, when Flapping Airplanes launched publicly with a $180 million seed round backed by GV, Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures.
By July, the company was reportedly seeking financing at approximately a $5 billion valuation, with Index Ventures and Lux Capital leading and GV and Kleiner Perkins participating; both now return alongside Sequoia in the latest round.
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