AI startup Flapping Airplanes reaches $6 billion valuation in new funding

Flapping Airplanes, an AI research startup founded in late 2025, has secured $1 billion in funding at a $6 billion valuation. Index Ventures and Lux Capital led the financing, which also attracted Sequoia Capital, Alphabet’s GV, Kleiner Perkins and Nvidia.

The round raises the San Francisco-based company’s valuation to four times its January level, including the new capital.

Flapping Airplanes is among a rising wave of AI neolabs pursuing advances in areas such as scientific research and self-improving AI systems without initially prioritizing revenue generation. The startup’s name comes from the ornithopter, an aircraft concept inspired by birds’ flapping wings, and reflects the idea of combining natural and artificial intelligence.

The startup aims to reduce the data and computing power required to train AI models while making the chips used to develop and operate them more efficient.

Co-founder Asher Spector said the company is betting that demand for AI will exceed the available supply of chips and computing resources, increasing the value of technologies that improve existing hardware performance. He said extracting even 10% more performance from each chip could have substantial economic value amid heavy spending on AI infrastructure.

Lux Capital partner Brandon Reeves said getting more out of existing computing resources will be crucial to the next stage of AI development and described Flapping Airplanes as particularly well positioned to deliver those improvements. Spector said the company plans to commercialize its technology eventually, with the goal of making AI more accessible to businesses.