# Year-old AI lab Flapping Airplanes raises $1B at $6B valuation

> Flapping Airplanes, founded by a Neuralink alum and Stanford PhDs, raises $1 billion Series A to build AI systems that need far less data to train.
- Title: Year-old AI lab Flapping Airplanes raises $1B at $6B valuation
- Summary: Flapping Airplanes, founded by a Neuralink alum and Stanford PhDs, raises $1 billion Series A to build AI systems that need far less data to train. Flapping…
- Keywords: flapping airplanes, aidan smith, asher spector, ben spector, series a funding, ai training, gpu optimization, technology, startups, Year-old, lab, Flapping
- Source: TechCrunch — https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/21/year-old-ai-lab-flapping-airplanes-raises-1b-at-a-6b-valuation
- Author: Julie Bort
- Published: 2026-10-21T20:57:40+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: flapping airplanes, aidan smith, asher spector, ben spector, series a funding, ai training, gpu optimization, technology, startups
## One-year-old startup raises $1B Series A
Flapping Airplanes announced a one billion dollar Series A round on Wednesday, co-led by Index and Lux, reportedly at a six billion dollar valuation.
## Valuation quadruples in nine months
The company raised a one hundred eighty million dollar seed round nine months earlier at a one point five billion dollar valuation from GV, Sequoia, and Index.
## Founding team includes Neuralink alum
Flapping Airplanes was founded by Aidan Smith, a former Thiel fellow who worked at Neuralink during college, and brothers Asher and Ben Spector, both Stanford PhDs.
## Building AI that needs less data
The company aims to create intelligent systems without ingesting half the internet.Asher Spector said a model that is a million times more data efficient is probably a million times easier to put into the economy.

> A model that's a million times more data efficient is probably a million times easier to put into the economy.
## Megakernel framework runs multiple tasks
The founders describe their work as the world's most complete megakernel framework that can perform entire training runs, serve inference, play video games, and do all three simultaneously in a single kernel.

> the world's most complete megakernel framework. It can perform entire training runs, serve inference, play video games, and even do all three simultaneously in a single kernel.
## Fresh capital to hire and build
Flapping Airplanes now has one billion dollars to hire and attempt to turn its goal of cheaper AI systems into reality.
## Key takeaway

Flapping Airplanes raised one billion dollars at a six billion dollar valuation nine months after its seed round, aiming to train large AI models with significantly less data.