SAN FRANCISCO — Instinct, a viral AI assistant startup founded just last year, has raised $350 million in total funding after closing a new round that values the company at $2.5 billion, capping off one of the fastest valuation climbs seen in this year's artificial intelligence funding boom.

The company told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that it had raised $250 million in a recent Series B round, co-led by venture capital firms Index Ventures and Benchmark. Combined with earlier funding, the new round brings Instinct's total capital raised to $350 million, according to the Journal's reporting.

From $100 million to $2.5 billion in weeks

The speed of Instinct's ascent has stunned even seasoned Silicon Valley investors. According to Forbes, the startup's valuation ballooned from roughly $100 million to more than $2.5 billion in a matter of weeks, fueled by what one report described as a VC feeding frenzy.

Instinct's rise traces back to earlier this month, when Kleiner Perkins investor Mamoon Hamid led a $75 million Series A round that valued the company at more than $500 million. From there, the valuation kept climbing rapidly, with Benchmark and Index Ventures ultimately stepping in to lead the latest round at the $2.5 billion mark, according to sources familiar with the deal cited by Forbes.

Who's behind Instinct

Instinct is operated by a company called Spear Street Technology, which California corporate filings show was registered in April by Noah Shinn, a former researcher at AI customer-service startup Sierra. The........

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