Q1 2026 Shatters Venture Funding Records As AI Boom Pushes Startup Investment To $300B

The first quarter of 2026 was unlike any other for venture investment, driven by unprecedented spending on AI compute and frontier labs. Crunchbase data shows investors poured $300 billion into 6,000 startups globally in the quarter, up over 150% quarter over quarter and year over year, marking an all-time high for global venture investment not approached by any other quarter on record.

Source: Crunchbase