Q1 2026 was a bumper quarter in venture capital. Investors deployed $300 billion of fresh capital, more than double the previous quarter and surpassing 70% of all venture spending in 2025.
The devil is, of course, in the detail: $188 billion of that cash went to four companies – OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and Waymo – accounting for 60% of all venture capital deployed in Q1.