Instinct raises $1 billion as investors bet on AI that gets things done

Instinct, a San Francisco startup building an AI assistant that does errands rather than merely answer questions, has raised $1 billion in a Series C round that values it at $10 billion. Backers including Sequoia Capital, Benchmark and Coatue are betting consumers will want software that can book travel, order groceries, make calls and cancel subscriptions using its own phone and computer. The valuation is four times the roughly $2.5 billion price attached to Instinct in a funding round only about a month earlier, even though its service launched in invite-only early access in August and it has not disclosed user figures. The deal captures the fierce race to turn chatbots into agents trusted with real-world tasks—and, inevitably, personal data.