Pitch Book Venture capital activity in AI is reaching explosive new levels in the first three months of 2026, according to PitchBook’s latest research preview. Total AI-related investments rose to $255.5 billion in the quarter; This surpasses the entire $254.4 billion raised in all of 2025. opportunities While core technology platforms led the rise, other segments showed more diverse performance.
Pitch Book He also stated that horizontal platforms dominated this field, generating $197 billion in revenue from 396 transactions.
That figure alone exceeds the segment’s 2025 total of $110 billion; This marks the sharpest three-month jump on record, both in absolute and relative terms.
By contrast, vertical apps saw 948 deals worth $22 billion; Both volume and capital deployment decreased compared to the previous quarter.
Deal numbers in this category are now down to their lowest point since 2018, but capital deployed remains close to early 2022 peaks despite about half as many deals being completed.
semiconductor investments It recorded its strongest second quarter ever, with $5 billion across 84 deals, just shy of the previous period’s record.
Autonomous machines demonstrated a historic performance, generating $29 billion in revenue in 118 transactions; This is more than three times the deal value in Q4 2025. A single $16 billion late-stage round for Waymo solidified the segment’s debut.
On a trailing 12-month basis, the divide between segments has become even starker: horizontal platforms held $299 billion, while vertical apps increased the number of deals but raised much less capital.
The launch event also sets new benchmarks. SpaceX$250 billion xAI acquisition is largest ever artificial intelligenceM&A deals in history have dwarfed the combined value of all such transactions in the previous three years.
Horizontal platforms accounted for 91 percent of the exit value announced among the top 20 deals, despite accounting for only a third of the number.
IPOs and acquisitions remained active, with Zhipu’s IPO and Marvell’s acquisition of Celestial AI among the quarter’s other significant liquidity events.
Valuations have risen amid capital concentration. Median pre-money valuations have nearly doubled from $30 million in Q4 2025 to $69.9 million.
The venture growth phase had the biggest jump, rising more than 165 percent to $868.4 million.
Early- and late-stage medians also rose sharply, while pre-seed and seed valuations remained relatively stable. Median to agree sizes have expanded and valuation increases between rounds have reached their highest levels in recent years, especially at the first VC level.
Prominent financings underlined this trend. OpenAI It closed a $122 billion round, Anthropic raised $30.6 billion and xAI raised $20 billion; all of this took place on horizontal platforms.
Waymo’s $16 billion round led to autonomous machines and was followed by remarkable checks. data bricksNscale, Rokid, Neura Robotics and others.
The macro environment revealed some cautions.
Geopolitical tensions, including the conflict in Iran and disruptions in energy transportation, have increased inflation and created uncertainty in the environment. Federal Reserve policy.
Although rate cuts occurred late last year, persistent price pressures could limit further easing and dampen exit momentum.
Pitch Book He expects capital’s continued focus on frontier horizontal models, moderate growth in vertical applications, sustained tailwinds for semiconductors, and continued interest in autonomous vehicles and robotics. In general, update Pitch Book Overall, it paints a picture of a maturing AI investment ecosystem with larger bets on proven platforms financing ecosystem.
