Flapping Airplanes, an artificial intelligence startup founded just over a year ago, has secured $1 billion in a Series A funding round, bringing its valuation to $6 billion. The funding announcement was made on October 21. This latest investment marks a significant increase from the company’s $1.5 billion valuation earlier this year in January.

The Series A round was co-led by Index Ventures and Lux Capital, with participation from existing investors GV, Sequoia, and Kleiner Perkins. Additional new investors include Valor, Atreides, A*, and Nvidia. Prior to this, Flapping Airplanes had raised $180 million in seed funding.

Founded by Aidan Smith and brothers Asher and Ben Spector, the company focuses on developing methods to train large AI models more efficiently by using less data. Smith previously worked at Neuralink, a brain implant firm, while Asher Spector has a background in statistics from Stanford University. Ben Spector studied computer science at Stanford and founded Prod, a student-led startup accelerator.

At the core of Flapping Airplanes’ innovation is what the founders describe as a “megakernel framework.” This technology aims to unify and optimize multiple computing tasks within a single program operating on a graphics processing unit (GPU). By integrating tasks such as AI model training, inference, and even video game processing, the startup intends to improve hardware efficiency significantly.

With this substantial infusion of capital, Flapping Airplanes is positioned to accelerate development of its technology, which could impact AI model training and expand applications where GPUs are utilized. The company’s rapid valuation growth and high-profile investor backing underscore strong confidence in its approach to addressing efficiency challenges in AI computing.