Artificial intelligence funding in 2026 has begun at a pace that makes last year’s record look conservative, as per a report by BestBrokers. In just the first two months of the year, AI startups have attracted $220 billion globally, nearly matching the $270.2 billion raised across all of 2025. 2025 was the first year in which funding for artificial intelligence exceeded half of all VC deal value, accounting for 52.7% of the total $512.6 billion invested by venture capital firms.

At the centre of this surge is the historic $110 billion financing round by OpenAI, the largest startup funding round ever recorded, accounting half of the $220 billion raised so far this year. The deal now values the ChatGPT developer at $840 billion and was backed by Amazon, SoftBank and NVIDIA.

Foundation model wars intensify

OpenAI’s closest rival, Anthropic, secured a $30 billion Series G round in February, lifting its valuation to $380 billion. The deal was led by sovereign wealth fund GIC and hedge fund Coatue, according to the report.

Meanwhile, xAI, founded by Elon Musk, raised $20 billion in a Series E round, exceeding its initial $15 billion target and pushing its valuation to $230 billion.

For both the AI companies, NVIDIA appears again as a key backer, reinforcing its strategic position not just as a chip supplier but as an equity participant across the AI stack. Yet, it appears that NVIDIA’s participation in funding would hit a pause, as its CEO, Jensen Huang hinted that it would not deliver the remaining of the promised $100 billion to OpenAI.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference on March 4, Huang said the opportunity to deploy another $100 billion into OpenAI is “probably not in the cards,” noting that the ChatGPT maker is widely expected to debut on the stock market later this year. “The reason for that is because they’re going to go public,” he said.

Taken together, the three largest deals — OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI — account for $160 billion, highlighting a stark trend: venture capital in AI is increasingly flowing to a handful of foundation model developers rather than being evenly distributed across early-stage startups.

Capital pours into infrastructure and autonomy

Beyond large language model developers, capital is also clustering around hardware, robotics and autonomous mobility. Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo raised $16 billion, lifting its valuation to $126 billion as it expands internationally. In semiconductor infrastructure, Cerebras Systems secured $1 billion at a $23 billion valuation, positioning itself as a challenger in high-performance AI compute.

Robotics-focused Skild AI raised $1.4 billion at a $14 billion valuation, while Waabi secured $1 billion to advance autonomous freight systems. World Labs, backed by Autodesk, NVIDIA and AMD, also raised $1 billion despite being valued at a comparatively modest $5 billion — suggesting investor appetite for applied AI research platforms remains strong.

Even voice AI firm ElevenLabs joined the top rounds with a $500 million raise at an $11 billion valuation, signalling continued demand for generative AI applications beyond core infrastructure.

A structural shift in venture capital

Quarterly data from 2025 shows steady but comparatively measured growth:

Q1: $75.5 billion

Q2: $56.9 billion

Q3: $65.4 billion

Q4: $72.4 billion

By contrast, January 2026 alone brought in $31.7 billion, followed by an extraordinary $189 billion in February.

The shift also reflects changing investor profiles. The presence of Amazon, NVIDIA and SoftBank in the largest deals points to a strategic consolidation phase, where hyperscalers and semiconductor leaders are reinforcing their stakes in foundational AI companies. Traditional venture firms remain active, but the biggest cheques are increasingly written by technology incumbents and sovereign capital.