The first quarter of 2026 saw Series B funding reach an all-time high of $4.2 billion, driven primarily by massive bets on artificial intelligence startups. Enterprise AI companies accounted for nearly 60% of the total.

Leading the charge were firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, each deploying over $500 million into AI-focused companies during the quarter.

“We’re in a generational technology shift,” said Sarah Chen, General Partner at Sequoia. “The companies being built right now will define the next decade of enterprise software.”

Notable deals included a $340 million round for Nexus AI, which builds autonomous coding agents, and a $280 million investment in DataForge, a platform for synthetic data generation.