Cognition AI, the startup behind the autonomous coding agent Devin, is in early talks with investors for a new funding round that could value the company at $40 billion or more, according to a Bloomberg report Wednesday. The figure would mark an increase of more than 50% from the $26 billion valuation Cognition set less than three months ago, when it raised $1 billion in its last round.
People familiar with the discussions said the driving factor is revenue growth: Cognition's annualized revenue run rate is now approaching $1 billion, roughly double the figure the company reported at the time of its previous raise. The talks are still early, and terms, investors and timing could change before any deal is finalized.
Founded in 2023, Cognition built its reputation on Devin, which it introduced in 2024 and described as an AI system capable of independently handling multistep software engineering tasks rather than simply suggesting code snippets to a human developer. The company counts Peter Thiel among its investors.
Mega-Rounds Become the Norm
Cognition's jump would be the latest in a string of outsize valuation increases among AI coding and infrastructure companies this year, as venture investors continue to funnel disproportionate sums into a narrow set of firms seen as best positioned to capture enterprise software spending. Rounds above $100 million, once rare outside the largest frontier AI labs, have become routine for well-regarded startups in the sector, as TechCrunch noted in its own account of the talks.
The pace of the fundraising, three months between a $26 billion and a potential $40 billion valuation, illustrates how quickly private markets are repricing AI companies as revenue scales. It also raises the stakes for Cognition to sustain that growth: investors writing checks at a $40 billion valuation are, in effect, betting that its roughly $1 billion run rate has significant room left to compound. Cognition has not commented publicly on the reported talks, and no timeline for closing a round has been disclosed.
