Artificial Intelligence

Funding into AI startups has grown nearly tenfold over the past five years, reaching $224.8B in 2025. With $504.0B raised in the first 9 months of 2026, the full year is on track to land at $672.0B, a +199% 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 Q3 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 82.4% of US venture capital, ahead of the 75.8% global benchmark, while Europe trailed at 56.3% and China at 66.8%. 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, 88% of capital landed in scaleup ($100M+) rounds, 9% in breakout ($15–100M), and 3% across startups (under $15M). Each panel below stacks the canonical sub-bands across Q3 2022 → Q3 2026.

The most active investors in AI startups ranked by the number of disclosed VC rounds they've participated in. Y Combinator leads with 3,410 rounds, followed by Antler at 881. The table shows the top ten with their firm type, the rounds they've joined and the companies they've backed here (follow-on rounds make the first larger), 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 in 2026 Q1-3 (year to date) at $392.0B, followed by China ($47.6B). The chart ranks the top countries; alongside it, the leading Bay Area metro region leads the city ranking with $331.8B in 2026 Q1-3 (year to date). Use the metric pills, and the dropdown, to switch view. The VC dropdown also covers the fastest-growing hubs (Singapore up +855%) 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 5,344, followed by New York City at 2,084. Scroll or drag to explore, pinch with two fingers on mobile.

In 2026 Q1-3 (year to date), the largest VC rounds in AI startups reveal where capital is consolidating. The table below lists the 15 biggest rounds by amount, with date, company, round type, and lead investors; rounds without a public amount sit at the bottom with the amount left blank. Exits 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 266% over three years to $110.5B in 2025 and 200 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 885 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, 106 are decacorns, companies at a $10B+ valuation. The ecosystem also counts 494 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 222 in 2026. On exits, the sector has produced 3,198 tracked exits since 2019 representing $1.3T in disclosed value. Notable exits in the data include Snowflake ($67.9B, 2020), followed by Anysphere | Cursor ($60.0B, 2026), ARM ($54.5B, 2023).

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.