AI Startups Took $61 Billion of North America’s Q3 Funding, Crunchbase Says

North American startup funding fell sharply in the third quarter of 2026, but AI companies still captured roughly two-thirds of the money. Crunchbase’s October 7 report puts total investment at $92 billion, down 35% from the previous quarter and up 50% from a year earlier. AI-focused companies received $61 billion.

After the first-half peaks

Crunchbase attributes much of the quarterly drop to the absence of fresh, exceptionally large rounds for OpenAI and Anthropic. Those companies helped push first-half funding to record levels. The report’s author, Joanna Glasner, argues that the lower dollar total does not, by itself, signal a broadly weaker venture investment climate.

Deal counts offer a different view from the headline funding decline: early- and late-stage round counts remained close to the previous quarter’s levels. Investment dollars nevertheless fell across most stages. Early-stage funding retreated from a multiyear peak in Q2, while later-stage funding also declined.

$61 billionFunding to AI-focused companies

AI funding declined sharply from the first two quarters but remained among the highest quarterly totals on record, according to Crunchbase.

Where the quarter’s money went

Later-stage companies absorbed most of the capital. More than a dozen startups raised late-stage or growth rounds of at least $1 billion during Q3. The stage breakdown also shows how much less money went to companies at the beginning of their financing journey.

• Late stage and technology growth: $66.45 billion. This category includes Series C and later venture rounds, plus private-equity rounds for companies that previously raised venture funding. Investment was up about a third from a year earlier.
• Early stage: $20.6 billion. The category includes Series A and Series B financings. Despite the quarterly decline, the total remained well above the year-earlier level, with a few unusually large rounds lifting the tally.
• Seed, angel and pre-seed: at least $5 billion. This preliminary total was slightly below both the previous quarter and the year-earlier comparison. Crunchbase expects it to rise as additional deals enter its database.

A quieter route to public markets

The report also found a subdued quarter for initial public offerings, or IPOs, when companies first sell shares on public exchanges. Seventeen venture-backed North American companies went public on major U.S. and Canadian exchanges, collectively raising just under $4 billion. There were no blockbuster technology debuts; three biotechnology companies raised the largest sums.

The funding figures cover U.S. and Canadian startups from seed through growth stages, rather than global investment. Crunchbase’s methodology uses reported transactions and a data cutoff of October 2, 2026. All amounts are in U.S. dollars. The biggest reporting delays occur at the earliest funding stages, where deals can be added weeks or months after closing.