AI firms raised $297 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone, capturing 81% of all venture funding during that period.
The great capital migration
OpenAI led the charge in Q1 2026 with a $122 billion raise. Anthropic and xAI followed, pulling in $30 billion and $20 billion respectively.
The top 10% of startups absorbed nearly 50% of all VC investment in recent quarters. In one particularly lopsided quarter, just four AI deals represented 65% of global funding.
Pre-2022 unicorns face a reckoning
