This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Cognition AI has secured more than $1 billion in fresh funding at a $26 billion valuation, reinforcing investor appetite for companies building artificial intelligence tools for software development. The financing was co-led by Lux Capital, General Catalyst and 8VC, with Ribbit Capital, Atreides Management LP and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund also participating. The new valuation, which includes the capital raised, has more than doubled from Cognition’s prior round in September.
Founded in 2023, Cognition is best known for Devin, an AI agent designed to automate programming work for engineers. The company’s revenue run rate has climbed to $492 million from $37 million last May, and management is targeting more than $1 billion later this year. That momentum has been supported by enterprise and government demand, including customers such as Goldman Sachs (GS), Mercedes-Benz Group AG, and several parts of the US government.
CEO Scott Wu framed Cognition’s approach as complementary to larger AI labs, saying the company uses a mix of its own models alongside technology from OpenAI and Anthropic to route customers toward the tools that may fit their needs best. More than 90% of Cognition’s internal code is now written by Devin, while the new funding could help the company stay independent, refine its models, improve the product experience, and possibly pursue more acquisitions. Cognition has now raised more than $2.5 billion to date, as AI coding continues to attract major attention across the sector, including from OpenAI, Anthropic, Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
