Top 5 VC Deals of the Week in AI (3/18/26)

By Christopher Robbins · Mar 19, 2026 Views: 1

Our Top 5 VC Deals of the Week in AI featured funding announcements from Advanced Machine Intelligence, Mind Robotics, Chowbus, Replit, and Wonderful

This week we continue our series on the top 5 VC-funded deals in AI.

The venture capital activity cooled off a bit this week, with four fundraising announcements coming solidly in above the $100 million threshold.

The biggest announcement, per FinSMEs, came from Paris, France-based Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI), which raised $1.03 billion in seed funding at a $3.5 billion valuation. AMI, an AI researcher, will "advance AI research and develop applications where reliability, controllability, and safety really matter, especially for industrial process control, automation, wearable devices, robotics, healthcare, and beyond," according to the announcement. Our second-place announcement was from Palo Alto, Calif.-based industrial robotics provider Mind Robotics, which raised a $500 million Series A to "expand operations and its development efforts," according to its announcement. The top five also included companies in the development, enterprise agentic AI and restaurant spaces.

Smaller funding raises that did not quite make our top 5 this week included announcements from the security, agentic AI and robotics sectors.

Below, we highlight the top five venture capital deals, ranked from the highest to the lowest funding amounts, showcasing the companies at the forefront of the AI revolution...

Top 5 Venture Capital Deals from March 12 - March 18

1. Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI)

Location: Paris, France
Description: An artificial intelligence research startup focused on advancing next-generation AI systems and foundational models.
Funding Amount: $1.03 billion
Funding Round: Seed
Valuation: $3.5 billion pre-money

2. Mind Robotics

Location: Palo Alto, CA
Description: Developer of AI-enabled industrial robotics systems designed to automate complex manufacturing and operational tasks.
Funding Amount: $500 million
Funding Round: Series A

3. Replit

Location: San Francisco, CA
Description: Provider of an AI-powered software creation platform enabling developers to build, collaborate, and deploy applications more efficiently.
Funding Amount: $400 million
Funding Round: Series D
Valuation: $9 billion

4. Wonderful

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Description: Enterprise AI agent platform provider helping organizations deploy autonomous agents to streamline workflows and operations.
Funding Amount: $150 million
Funding Round: Series B

5. Chowbus

Location: Chicago, IL
Description: An AI-powered platform supporting culturally rooted restaurants with ordering, delivery, and operational tools.
Funding Amount: $81 million
Funding Round: Undisclosed

Make sure to check out our Top 5 VC Deals of the Week in AI right here!

Written & Researched by DWN Staff

VC Deals Synopsized by ChatGPT Research Source: FinSMEs