Forbes’ AI 50 list spotlights the most promising privately held companies applying artificial intelligence to solve real-world challenges. Our eighth annual installment reflects how the AI landscape is shifting from a focus on the big foundation model labs to highlight startups building exciting, sustainable businesses. The selection process begins with both a public call for nominations and targeted outreach to thousands of eligible startups. There is no fee to apply. Nominees are asked to provide qualitative insights into areas such as their business models, technical talent and how they are building and deploying AI, as well as quantitative metrics including valuation, revenue and fundraising history. Companies may opt to submit certain data confidentially.

In parallel, Forbes, Meritech and Sequoia identify standout AI companies that may not have applied but merit evaluation. For these, we rely on publicly available sources such as PitchBook, Crunchbase and LinkedIn as well as Forbes reporting.

Forbes 2026 AI 50 List

The Forbes Artificial Intelligence 50 List of 2026 spotlights promising AI-driven businesses. See the leaders driving the future of the industry.

Since 2023, eligibility has extended beyond North America to include privately held companies worldwide.

An initial quantitative review of nominees is conducted using a proprietary algorithm developed by Sequoia Capital partner Konstantine Buhler. This model considers a mix of company-submitted data and external signals (including employee satisfaction scores, funding history and customer traction) to assess key dimensions including financial strength and organizational culture. While withholding data does not harm an application, submitting comprehensive details can improve visibility in the review process.

From there, the top 70 companies are reviewed by a panel of expert judges with backgrounds in academia, research and leading technology firms, as well as seasoned AI investors (see our full VC panel below). Judges evaluate each company’s technical rigor, technical potential and market competitiveness. Any judge with a financial stake in a candidate company is recused from evaluating it.

The final AI 50 list is curated by Forbes editors and reflects the most compelling AI startups of the year. Companies are presented alphabetically and are not ranked.

Aaref Hilaly is a partner at Bain Capital Ventures, investing in early-stage AI companies. Prior to his role at BCV, Hilaly spent seven years as a partner at Sequoia and served on the board of biotech company Guardant, which went public in 2018 and now has a $10.3 billion market cap. Aaref started his career as an entrepreneur, cofounding two companies that were acquired by Sun Microsystems and Symantec.

Disclosure: Bain Capital Ventures is an investor in Applied Intuition, Cognition, Crusoe, Decagon, Krea.ai and Legora.

Dr. Aude Oliva is a senior research scientist at MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Director of Strategic Industry Engagement at the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the MIT Director of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. An interdisciplinary scientist in human and machine intelligence, Oliva is the founder of Perceptual Insights Inc., a company training AI models on human perception and thinking.

Aydin Senkut is the founder and managing partner at Felicis, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm focused on emerging technologies. An angel turned multi-stage investor, Aydin has been named on the Forbes Midas List consecutively for the past twelve years (2014-2025). Before starting Felicis, he was the first product manager at Google and helped launch its first ten international sites.

Disclosure: Felicis is an investor in Crusoe, Mercor, Notion, Runway and Skild AI.

Christopher Manning is a general partner at AIX Ventures. Manning is also a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and is the school’s inaugural Thomas M. Siebel professor in machine learning. Considered a leading figure in natural language processing, he was previously the director of Stanford’s AI lab and has received three ACL Test of Time Awards and the IEEE John von Neumann Medal.

Disclosure: AIX is an investor in Lovable, Perplexity and Reflection.

Dr. Farzana Dudhwala has over fifteen years of experience working in AI across academia, government and the private sector. She most recently served as global AI policy & governance lead at Meta, leading work on AI safety policy and international governance. Previously, she worked on AI policy and data ethics for the UK government. She earned her DPhil in Science and Technology Studies at the University of Oxford, focusing on the societal impact of AI and data.

Dr. Joy Buolamwini is the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, a research institute that focuses on the harms and social implications of artificial intelligence. She authored the national bestseller, “Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines,” and her landmark research, “Gender Shades,” revealed how facial recognition systems from leading companies like IBM, Amazon and Microsoft misgendered women and darker-skinned people.

Konstantine Buhler is a partner at Sequoia Capital, investing in AI and machine learning startups. Buhler has partnered with companies including Citadel Securities, Verkada, Waymo and XBOW. Before joining Sequoia in 2019, Buhler was a principal at Meritech Capital.

Disclosure: Sequoia Capital is an investor in Anthropic, Clay, Cyera, Decart, ElevenLabs, Fireworks AI, Glean, Harvey, Listen Labs, Notion, OpenAI, OpenEvidence, Physical Intelligence, Reflection, Rogo, Skild AI and Safe Superintelligence Inc.

Matt Murphy is a partner at Menlo Ventures, where he backs companies from pre-revenue to growth. Murphy has been a venture capitalist for more than two decades, working at Kleiner Perkins before joining Menlo in 2015. He began his career as a product manager at Sun Microsystems. Murphy will help deploy a $100 million fund in partnership with Anthropic to invest in up-and-coming AI startups.

Disclosure: Menlo Ventures is an investor in Anthropic, Chai Discovery, Cursor, Databricks, Legora, Lovable, Mercor, OpenEvidence, Skild AI and Suno.

Miles Grimshaw is a partner at Thrive Capital, focused on backing founders at the earliest stages of company building, often when teams are fewer than 20 people. Miles has served on the boards of multiple companies, including Benchling, Segment, Monzo, Chai, LangChain, Glide and Supergreat.

Disclosure: Thrive Capital is an investor in Chai Discovery, Cursor, Databricks, OpenAI, OpenEvidence, Physical Intelligence, Rogo and Sierra.

Ravi Mhatre is cofounder and managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners with over 25 years of investing experience. In December, Lightspeed announced it had closed more than $9 billion across six new funds to support AI companies. He serves on the board of Anthropic and outside of AI has invested in the likes of Anduril, AppDynamics, Rubrik, Zscaler and Wiz.

Disclosure: Lightspeed Venture Partners is an investor in Abridge, Anthropic, Clay, Cohere, Cyera, Databricks, ElevenLabs, Fireworks AI, Glean, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Reflection, Skild AI, Safe Superintelligence Inc., Suno and Thinking Machines Lab.

Rob Toews is a partner at Radical Ventures and leads its San Francisco Bay Area office. He spent several years in the world of autonomous vehicles, helping lead the strategy team at Zoox (acquired by Amazon for $1.3 billion in 2020) and working on autonomous vehicle policy in the White House under President Barack Obama. In October, Radical Ventures raised $650 million in new capital to invest in early-stage AI startups.

Disclosure: Radical Ventures is an investor in Cohere, Crusoe and World Labs.

Saam Motamedi is a general partner at Greylock, where he partners with entrepreneurs focused on opportunities across AI, infrastructure and cybersecurity. He sits on the board of infrastructure companies such as Braintrust, Resolve AI, and Snorkel and cybersecurity companies like Abnormal and Fable.

Disclosure: Greylock is an investor in Anthropic, Baseten and OpenAI.

Sameer Dholakia is a partner of the growth investment practice at Bessemer Venture Partners, where he invests in cloud and AI companies. Before Bessemer, Sameer served as the CEO of SendGrid in 2014, leading the company through a successful IPO in 2017 and subsequent acquisition by cloud communications company Twilio for approximately $3 billion in 2019.

Disclosure: Bessemer Venture Partners is an investor in Cursor, Fal and Perplexity. Dholakia led investments in Abridge, Anthropic, EliseAI and Legora.

Sarah Catanzaro is a general partner at Amplify Partners, where she focuses on investing in and advising startups in AI, data management and distributed systems. Catanzaro previously worked on data strategy and led data science and AI teams for defense tech companies including Mattermark, Palantir and Cyveillance. She was also a program director at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit.

Disclosure: Amplify Partners is an investor in Chai Discovery. Catanzaro is a personal investor in Fal and Runway.

Sarah Guo is the founder of Conviction, a venture capital firm launched in 2022 to invest in intelligent software. Prior, she was a general partner at Greylock. Originally from Wisconsin, Guo has four degrees from the University of Pennsylvania including a Master's in Business Administration from the Wharton School, and co-hosts the popular AI podcast "No Priors" with Elad Gil.

Disclosure: Conviction is an investor in Baseten, Chai Discovery, Clay, Cognition, Harvey, HeyGen, Listen Labs, OpenEvidence, Physical Intelligence, Reflection, Sierra and Thinking Machines Lab.

Thomas Dohmke is the CEO and cofounder of coding startup Entire. Formerly, Thomas was Chief Executive Officer of GitHub, where he led the company’s growth to over 150 million developers and oversaw GitHub Copilot, which has over 20 million users. Dohmke previously cofounded HockeyApp and led the company through its acquisition by Microsoft in 2014. Thomas holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

Disclosure: Dohmke is an investor in Crusoe, Cursor, Databricks and Mercor.

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