AI lab Flapping Airplanes is now worth $6B, four times its January value

Flapping Airplanes wants to train AI with less data and get more out of each chip.

Flapping Airplanes, a San Francisco AI research lab founded in late 2025, has raised $1B at a $6B valuation, led by Index Ventures and Lux Capital, Bloomberg reported. Its valuation has quadrupled since January. It is working on ways to train AI with less data and compute, and has no product yet.

Flapping Airplanes, an AI research startup founded in late 2025, has raised $1B at a $6B valuation, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Index Ventures, which raised $2B in August to back more AI firms, led the round with Lux Capital. Sequoia Capital, Alphabet’s GV and Kleiner Perkins also took part.

The San Francisco company’s valuation has quadrupled since January, when it raised a $180M seed round. It has no product on sale yet.

Flapping Airplanes is one of a growing group of AI “ neolabs ”, startups that focus on research before building products. Others include Yann LeCun’s AMI Labs, which raised about $1B in March, and Mirendil, which raised $200M in June.

The startup is working on ways to train AI models with less data and computing power, co-founder Asher Spector told Bloomberg. It also wants to get more out of the chips that run them.

“ The basic thesis is demand for AI is going to outpace chip and data supply, ” Spector said. Getting 10% more performance out of each chip would be “ tremendously economically valuable, ” he added.

To do that, the company has been writing its own version of the software that runs Nvidia’s graphics chips, co-founder Aidan Smith said. Nvidia is an investor.

Other startups are chasing the same idea. Flourish, run by Internet Explorer co-creator Thomas Reardon, was reported in May to be raising about $500M for brain-inspired AI that uses less energy.

The bet comes as AI companies spend heavily on chips and data centres. Spector said the startup plans to sell its technology eventually, to make AI cheaper for other companies to use. He founded it with his brother Ben Spector and Smith.

The name refers to the ornithopter, an old aircraft design with flapping wings. Spector said it stands for combining the strengths of natural and artificial intelligence.

I am the Editor in Chief for TNW, covering technology not as a parade of launches and valuations, but as a system of influence, persuasion, (show all) I am the Editor in Chief for TNW, covering technology not as a parade of launches and valuations, but as a system of influence, persuasion, and change. I write about startups, venture capital, digital policy, and Europe ecosystem, with an eye on the larger story beneath them: who gets to build the future, who profits from it, and how Europe is learning to speak in a louder voice of its own. Before moving into senior editorial leadership, I've built my career for over +10 years across journalism, storytelling, content strategy, SEO, and digital publishing, with experience in SaaS, hospitality, art, and culture.

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