For venture capital, 2025 was all about artificial intelligence—a trend that’s all but certain to carry into 2026.

More than half of all VC dollars—and 36% of total deals—now flow to AI companies, according to a recent Silicon Valley Bank report. Crunchbase recently reported that 14% of all global venture investment in 2025 went to AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic. The year also saw huge deals like a $2 billion seed round raise by Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati.

AI deals are also often closing quickly, with investment rounds that once would have taken weeks to close being handled in........

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