Venture capital funding is reaching record levels in 2026, but a growing share of that money is flowing to a handful of artificial intelligence giants, leaving fewer dollars and deals for early-stage startups.
Global venture capital investment approached $680 billion through the first three quarters of 2026, according to Crunchbase data. However, the surge in funding has been driven largely by massive financing rounds for companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, rather than a broad recovery across the startup ecosystem. READ MORE
