AI21 Never Closed Its Reported $300 Million Round As Nvidia Weighs An Acquisition

By Allon Sinai
Publication Date: 2026-01-01 08:45:00

For much of 2025, AI21 Labs was widely described as having pulled off one of Israel’s largest artificial-intelligence fundraisings: a $300 million Series D backed by Google and Nvidia. The round was cited as evidence that the company, one of the country’s few builders of a large-scale language model, had secured its place among the industry’s serious contenders.

It now turns out that the round was never completed. In fact, AI21’s last actual fundraising took place in November 2023, when the company extended its Series C to a total of $208 million at a valuation of $1.4 billion. The much-discussed Series D was never closed, never formally announced, and never reflected in the company’s capital structure.

The revelation comes as Nvidia is now in advanced talks to acquire AI21. Estimates suggest a potential deal value of $2-3 billion, above the company’s last known valuation but far below the sums commanded by the sector’s global leaders. If completed, the transaction would appear to be driven less by technology than by people.

AI21 currently employs around 200 people, down from the 260 it reported in 2023. A plan to recruit an additional 100 employees in 2024 never materialized. Nvidia’s interest is widely understood to center on the company’s workforce, highly trained AI researchers, many with advanced academic credentials, rather than on a breakout commercial product.

Such an outcome would mark a quiet retreat from AI21’s original ambition. Founded in 2017…

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