AI's Funding Frenzy: Why Startups Are Raising Money Before They Even Ask

The venture capital calendar, once a steady 18-to-24-month rhythm, has been obliterated by the AI gold rush. Investors, haunted by the fear of missing the next OpenAI, are now writing checks to AI startups before they even formally ask. Leading this charge is Cognition AI, the maker of the autonomous Devin coding agent, which has compressed fundraising cycles to a pace the industry struggles to name. This is not a blip; it's a fundamental restructuring of how early-stage AI...