Leer en español: La IA se llevó 64 de cada 100 dólares de capital de riesgo

Startups around the world raised $159 billion between July and September 2026, according to Crunchbase’s quarterly report published on 5 October. Close to 6,000 startups got funded.

That sounds like a boom, and it is one, but only for one kind of company. AI startups raised $102 billion, or 64% of all venture money. Put differently: AI alone raised almost as much in three months as the entire startup market did in the same quarter last year ($104 billion in Q3 2025).

Where the money went

• A record 27 companies raised rounds of $1 billion or more. Databricks and Safe Superintelligence took $5 billion each.
• Late-stage companies got $105 billion. Seed got $13 billion, about 8% of the total.
• US companies took $91 billion, around 57% of the global total.
• The quarter was also down 25% from Q2’s $212 billion. Fewer giant AI cheques, same story.

Why people are arguing about it

Supporters say this is what a technology shift looks like: capital rushes to the winners. Critics point to the concentration. When a handful of companies take billion-dollar rounds, the headline total says little about what an ordinary founder will find when they start pitching.

What it means if you’re raising

If you build AI, investors are paying attention, and so is every competitor they are funding. If you don’t, the averages are not your market. You are competing for the remaining third, and you need sharper numbers, a clear path to revenue, and investors who actually invest in your sector. We wrote a guide on exactly that: Raising when you’re not AI.

Sources

• Crunchbase News, “Q3 2026 Global Startup Funding” by Gené Teare, 5 Oct 2026: news.crunchbase.com. The 8% seed share and the Q3 2025 comparison are our arithmetic from Crunchbase’s figures.

Written by Fabian Cisneros. Educational only — not investment, legal or tax advice. See the full disclaimer.