Venture funding of AI companies in 2026 will easily smash funding records set in 2025, with some heavy deals already consummated in the first quarter, according to market researchers.

Data from Crunchbase shows that $300 billion poured into 6,000 startups worldwide during the first quarter of 2026. That’s a quarterly record for venture funding in AI companies, a Crunchbase news report said.

A study from S&P Global measured generative AI funding reaching over $140 billion in the first quarter of 2026, outpacing all of 2025, according to a story published on the company’s website. Amid economic concerns, inflation, and the war in Iran, there were fewer deals overall, but the funding rounds were large in scope compared to any made in 2025.

Chip maker Nvidia invested in both OpenAI and Anthropic, in the process striking deals to use Nvidia’s GPUs for their genAI models. Nvidia also invested in genAI startup Thinking Machines Lab, which was founded by Mira Murati, the former CTO (and temporarily CEO) of OpenAI.

Venture capitalists are ramping up investments as enterprises across every sector add to their AI portfolios.

“I can say investment velocity for 2026 is fast and on pace or ahead of 2025,” said John Mannes, partner at venture capital firm Basis Set, which focuses solely on AI investments.

“For VCs, it’s a gold rush,” said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. “There is lots of potential capital floating around out there in search of the next big thing. AI is the next supposed killer investment, and no one wants to be left behind.”

Gold sees clear signs of an AI bubble, starting with the murky path to profitability for AI firms. “Does AI have the potential to generate lots of revenues? Yes, but with the current spend rate on infrastructure, it’s hard to see how [AI vendors] can be revenue-positive in the short term (two to three years),” he said.

Another sign of the bubble is the “circular financing” that happens when, for example, Nvidia invests in a new company that promises to buy Nvidia products, Gold said.

“As long as people are willing to throw money at AI, then the bubble will remain. But if we hit a point where investors say, ‘We’ve put enough into the field; now show us how our investments will pay off’ (other than through inflated IPO stock prices), then the bubble will likely burst,” Gold said.

“We’re not at that point yet, but it could happen if the economy goes south,” he added.

Clear winners and losers will emerge in the AI sector, said Brad Harrison, founding partner at Scout Ventures. His firm does not invest in large-language models; its AI investments are largely directed toward military and defense, particularly AI technologies for deterrence on the battlefield.

“Without a doubt, we’re in an AI bubble,” Harrison said.

Many AI companies will fail because platforms from large AI vendors will be used to create agents that solve what the other AI companies were trying to do, Harrison said. Breakthrough tools like Claude Code are already improving developer productivity.

“You’re going to see a lot of SaaS companies get a lot smaller… If you don’t need all these people doing all the work, then you don’t need all those software licenses,” Harrison said.

Additionally, he noted, infrastructure and energy demands have reached unsustainable levels, which has raised questions about the resources available for AI.

“Is it good to devote these resources to feeding AI? … Do you think [citizens] want us to spend trillions of deficit that we don’t have on building AI infrastructure and energy? Or do you think they’d rather have some food?” Harrison asked.