Artificial Intelligence

Funding into AI startups has grown nearly tenfold over the past five years, reaching $215.8B in 2025. With $403.3B raised in the first 6 months of 2026, the full year is on track to land at $806.5B, a +274% change versus 2025. The chart below shows annual funding totals; the latest year is annualised from observed-to-date data and represents the renderer's projection, not a closed quarter.

Yearly totals mask the quarter-by-quarter rhythm. The chart below shows AI startups funding raised in each of the last 21 complete quarters through Q2 2026. All bars are actual closed-quarter sums, no projections, no in-progress quarters.

How much of each region's venture capital flows into AI startups, and who runs ahead of the global average? So far in 2026, AI took 86.0% of US venture capital, ahead of the 78.1% global benchmark, while Europe trailed at 54.4% and China at 63.8%. The dashed line is the global figure; lines above it are regions more concentrated in AI startups than the world as a whole.

How capital deployed into AI startups is split across round sizes. In the trailing four quarters, 89% of capital landed in scaleup ($100M+) rounds, 8% in breakout ($15–100M), and 3% across startups (under $15M). Each panel below stacks the canonical sub-bands across Q2 2022 → Q2 2026.

The most active investors in AI startups ranked by the number of disclosed rounds they've participated in. Y Combinator leads with 2,495 rounds, followed by Sequoia at 664. The table shows the top ten with their firm type, in-scope round count, total portfolio size, and headquarters.

Two views of leadership in AI startups: the most-funded companies all-time on the left, and the hottest companies right now by Dealroom Signal on the right. Total-funding figures include all capital sources tracked by Dealroom (VC plus grants, project finance, and other instruments). Signal is Dealroom's live growth ranking, these are the firms with the strongest recent momentum across team, timing, growth, and completeness.

United States leads global AI startups funding at $421.0B, followed by China ($35.9B). The chart ranks the top countries; alongside it, the leading Bay Area metro region leads the city ranking with $363.1B. Use the metric pills, and the dropdown, to switch view. The VC dropdown also covers the fastest-growing hubs (Singapore up +827%) and where AI startups venture capital and unicorns concentrate against the rest of the world.

Where AI startups VC-backed startups are based. Each marker is sized by the number of VC-backed startups HQ'd in that metro. Bay Area leads at 4,529, followed by New York City at 1,786. Scroll or drag to explore, pinch with two fingers on mobile.

Over the last 12 months (through Jul 2026), the largest VC rounds in AI startups reveal where capital is consolidating. The table below lists the 15 biggest disclosed rounds by amount, with date, company, round type, and lead investors. Funding events without a public amount are excluded; acquisitions sit in the Unicorns & Exits section.

Which corners of AI are heating up fastest? Each sub-sector is scored on a transparent blend of two-year VC growth, unicorn formation, and recent funding scale. Generative AI tops the ranking, with venture capital up 265% over three years to $109.3B in 2025 and 174 unicorns. Sub-sector tags overlap (a company can sit in several), so this shows where momentum concentrates rather than splitting the total.

AI startups have minted 787 unicorns to date. Dealroom defines a unicorn as a company that has reached a $1B+ valuation or exit (verified and manually reviewed; other lists use different criteria, this is ours). Of those, 93 are decacorns, companies at a $10B+ valuation. The ecosystem also counts 467 thoroughbreds: companies generating $100M+ in revenue (a separate lens from unicorns, with some overlap). The chart below shows the cumulative count climbing each year, with the line tracking new unicorns minted in that year, peaking at 151 in 2021. On exits, the sector has produced 3,304 tracked acquisitions since 2010 representing $566.2B in disclosed value. Notable acquisitions in the data include Anysphere | Cursor ($60.0B, 2026), followed by Xilinx ($35.0B, 2020), Red Hat ($34.0B, 2018).

Universities are the talent pipeline behind AI, the institutions whose alumni found the most unicorns and venture-backed companies, and the research that spins out into them.

The patent portfolio behind AI startups, granted patent families, where the IP concentrates, and the technologies driving it.

In-depth Dealroom research relevant to this guide.

Live, interactive market maps of the AI ecosystem, Dealroom-curated landscapes mapping thousands of companies across sub-sectors. Open any map to explore the full landscape.