H1 2026 Global AI Funding Hits $51B, Two Companies Claim 43%
docdavkitty · reddit · 2026-07-06
The Crunchbase H1 2026 global venture report shows total global funding reached $510 billion, surpassing the entirety of 2025 ($440 billion) and hitting a record high. AI companies absorbed over 70% of venture capital in Q2 and 80% in Q1. OpenAI and Anthropic alone raised a combined $217 billion, accounting for 43% of total global funding; all other non-AI startups combined only received $63 billion in Q1.
Agentic infrastructure became the fastest-growing sub-sector: Together AI raised $800 million (valuation of $8.3 billion), Microsoft established a $2.5 billion AI deployment company, AWS committed $1 billion to an embedded AI engineer program, and the majority of over 180 startups in the YC W26 batch are focused on the agent space. The report also notes that 88% of AI funding flowed to US companies. Expectations for an Anthropic IPO and a potential new funding round for OpenAI will likely drive this trend into Q3, while the market remains watchful of bubble risks.
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