In 2025, AI startups captured 61% of all global venture capital investment ($258.7 billion out of $427.1 billion total) according to the OECD’s latest analysis. That is double AI’s share from just three years earlier. The San Francisco Bay Area alone absorbed $122 billion of it.
But when nearly every fund on the planet is adding “AI” to its thesis, how do you find the investors who actually understand what you are building? The difference between a VC who chases a sector label and one who can evaluate your model architecture, debate your data strategy, or open doors to enterprise customers is the difference between a cap table liability and a genuine partner.
This guide profiles 15 AI and ML investors who have demonstrated sustained conviction in the space, firms and funds that were writing checks into machine learning before ChatGPT went viral, that maintain deep technical networks, and that bring resources beyond capital. Whether you are building foundation models in San Francisco, applying AI in London, or ML infrastructure in Toronto, at least a few of these names belong on your target list.
The AI Funding Landscape in 2026: Context for Founders
Before diving into specific firms, it helps to understand the market you are raising in. The numbers are staggering, but they also mask important structural shifts.
According to Crunchbase’s year-end analysis, mega-rounds now dominate AI funding. In 2025, 73% of total AI investment value came from deals exceeding $100 million. SoftBank’s $40 billion investment into OpenAI was the single largest venture deal ever. Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, and Founders Fund were the three VC firms that each led billion-dollar AI rounds.
For founders, this creates a paradox: there is more AI capital available than ever, but it is increasingly concentrated at the top. About $340 billion in total VC funding was deployed in 2025, which is a jump of over $100 billion from any of the prior three years—but early-stage startups outside of AI have found capital harder to access.
The investor composition has also shifted dramatically. Traditional VC firms have reclaimed the lead from private equity in funding AI’s hottest companies. Eight of the ten most active lead investors in deals over $50 million in 2025 were venture capital firms—a reversal from 2021, when PE dominated. For founders, this means the people evaluating your pitch are increasingly likely to be sector-specialist VCs, not generalist crossover funds.
What do these investors actually look for? The most active AI investors now evaluate four core competencies: technical differentiation, market validation through early traction or pilots, financial discipline with clear unit economics, and regulatory preparedness around AI governance and data privacy.
Quick-Reference: 15 AI/ML Investors at a Glance
The following table summarises each firm profiled in this article. Detailed write-ups follow below.
Additional Read: The Most Active Early-Stage Funders in the UK Right Now (2026)
AI-Native Specialists: Funds Built Exclusively Around AI
1. Radical Ventures (Toronto / San Francisco / London)
Founded in 2017 by the entrepreneurs behind Layer 6 AI and co-founders of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Radical Ventures is one of the world’s largest funds investing exclusively in AI. In October 2025, the firm closed a $650 million early-stage fund — its sixth overall and fourth dedicated to early-stage AI. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board contributed $75 million, having now invested $280 million across Radical’s funds since 2019. The firm’s portfolio includes Cohere (valued at $5.5 billion as of 2025), Waabi, Xanadu, and Writer. Radical’s “AI Eats Software” thesis focuses on companies that integrate AI into their core offerings rather than bolting it on. The firm has invested in around 60 companies and runs an annual AI Founders Masterclass. Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of Deep Learning", is an investor in the fund.
2. Conviction (San Francisco)
Founded in 2022 by Sarah Guo—formerly the youngest general partner at Greylock Partners—Conviction is purpose-built for what Guo calls “Software 3.0". In January 2025, the firm closed its second fund at $230 million, more than doubling its $101 million debut. Mike Vernal, a former Sequoia partner, joined as a GP. Conviction writes $1–25 million cheques at seed and Series A, looking for technical teams that build with speed. Portfolio highlights include Harvey (AI legal platform, $3 billion valuation), Mistral AI ($6 billion), and Baseten. Guo co-hosts the No Priors podcast, one of the most-followed AI investing shows, and appeared on the 2025 Midas Seed list.
3. Air Street Capital (London)
Founded in 2018 by Nathan Benaich, Air Street Capital is a London-based seed and Series A firm investing exclusively in AI-first companies. The firm has made over 50 investments across two funds and is known for publishing the annual State of AI Report, one of the most widely cited analyses of the AI landscape. Portfolio companies include Black Forest Labs, Recursion Pharmaceuticals (public), and Stability AI. Air Street’s portfolio includes eight unicorns. The firm’s European base gives it a differentiated view on AI talent emerging from UK and continental European research institutions, a meaningful advantage as AI development becomes more geographically distributed.
4. Glasswing Ventures (Boston)
Glasswing closed its oversubscribed $200 million Fund III in November 2025, its largest to date. Founded by Rudina Seseri and Rick Grinnell, the firm invests at pre-seed and seed in AI-native enterprise and cybersecurity startups. Since 2018, Glasswing has made 70 investments and was the first institutional investor in over 90% of them. The firm’s core portfolio has collectively raised more than $650 million in follow-on capital. What differentiates Glasswing is its proprietary ML tools for evaluating startups and its 62-member advisory council that provides portfolio companies direct access to enterprise customers. The firm explicitly distinguishes between “AI-native” companies and what it calls “GPT wrappers".
5. Bloomberg Beta (San Francisco)
An unconventional entrant: Bloomberg Beta is an early-stage fund with $450 million under management, capitalised solely by Bloomberg L.P. Founded in 2013 — well before the current AI wave—the fund invests in machine intelligence and the future of work. Led by Roy Bahat, Bloomberg Beta has made over 360 investments across five funds, including early bets on Weights & Biases (acquired by CoreWeave for $1.7 billion). The fund operates with radical transparency: its entire operating manual is open-sourced on GitHub, and any partner can independently approve a deal without committee consensus. The fund’s profits go to Bloomberg Philanthropies, and it was ranked the #2 investor in AI by CB Insights.
Additional Read: 11 US Early-Stage Investors Writing Checks in 2026
Deep Tech and Science-Driven Funds
6. Lux Capital (New York)
In January 2026, Lux Capital closed its largest fund ever at $1.5 billion, bringing its total AUM to over $5 billion. Lux invests at the intersection of technology and science, with a portfolio that spans AI, defence, biotech, and energy. On the AI side, Lux was an early-stage investor in Hugging Face, Runway AI, and MosaicML (acquired by Databricks for $1.3 billion in 2023). The firm was also a seed investor in Anduril (last valued at $30.5 billion) and Applied Intuition ($15 billion). Lux’s edge is its ability to evaluate deeply technical companies that sit at the frontier of multiple disciplines — exactly where AI is increasingly being applied.
7. DCVC — Data Collective (San Francisco)
DCVC invests at the intersection of deep science and AI, with over $2 billion in assets under management. Founded by Matt Ocko and Zachary Bogue, the firm backs companies applying AI and machine learning to climate, space, security, healthcare, and industrial applications. Portfolio companies include Recursion Pharmaceuticals (AI drug discovery, public), Planet Labs (satellite imagery), and Orbital Insight. As noted by Banyan VC’s analysis, DCVC’s investment range spans $2–20 million from seed through Series B, and the firm maintains a scientific advisory board that includes Nobel laureates. Due diligence typically extends three to six months, reflecting their commitment to understanding complex technical innovations.
8. Playground Global (Palo Alto)
Founded by Android co-creator Andy Rubin, Playground Global backs technical founders building at the boundaries of AI, robotics, and advanced computing. The firm has been an early investor in companies like MosaicML (acquired by Databricks) and Nervana (acquired by Intel)—two exits that demonstrate the firm’s ability to identify AI infrastructure companies before they become acquisition targets. Playground focuses on seed and Series A, with a particular emphasis on founders with deep engineering or research backgrounds. The firm’s direct connection to hardware and systems thinking gives it a differentiated lens on AI infrastructure investments.
Multi-Stage Firms With Dedicated AI Conviction
9. Andreessen Horowitz — a16z (San Francisco)
In 2024, a16z launched a dedicated $1.5 billion AI fund — one of the largest from any venture firm. As Gilion’s analysis notes, the firm aggressively scaled its AI portfolio alongside Sequoia, Coatue, and Greylock. Portfolio highlights include Mistral AI, Character.AI, and Anysphere. What sets a16z apart in AI is its platform model: portfolio companies get access to a 150+ person support team covering recruiting, go-to-market, regulatory strategy, and technical infrastructure. The firm led or co-led billion-dollar AI rounds in 2025, placing it among the three most active VC firms in mega-deals alongside Lightspeed and Founders Fund.
10. GV — Google Ventures (San Francisco)
Backed by Alphabet, GV operates with $2.4 billion under management and invests from seed through growth stages. According to Qubit Capital’s guide, GV’s investment range spans $1–50 million, with portfolio companies including Anthropic and an early investment relationship with DeepMind (before Google acquired it). GV focuses on AI infrastructure, consumer AI, and enterprise applications. The Alphabet connection provides portfolio companies access to cloud compute resources, AI research, and distribution channels — though founders should weigh whether that strategic alignment fits their independence goals.
11. Lightspeed Venture Partners (Menlo Park / Global)
Lightspeed was one of the three venture firms to lead billion-dollar AI deals in 2025, according to Crunchbase. The firm’s AI portfolio includes major investments in Anthropic and Stability AI, alongside heavy deployment into AI infrastructure. Lightspeed operates globally with offices in the U.S., India, China, Israel, and Europe — making it one of the few top-tier AI investors with a genuinely international footprint. For founders outside the U.S., Lightspeed’s multi-geography presence is a significant differentiator compared to purely Silicon Valley-based firms.
Additional Read: 15 Fintech Investors Every Founder Should Know (2026)
Seed-Stage Specialists Writing the First AI Checks
12. Bee Partners (San Francisco)
As Rho’s 2025 guide highlights, Bee Partners focuses on pre-seed and seed deep tech, making it one of the earliest-stage AI investors on this list. The firm targets technical founders building in AI, robotics, and advanced computing. For founders still in the lab or just spinning out of a research institution, Bee Partners is designed to be the first institutional check, before the company has product-market fit, before revenue, and often before a complete team. This positioning fills a critical gap, since most of the firms on this list require at least a working prototype.
13. Gradient Ventures (Mountain View)
Gradient is Alphabet’s AI-focused seed fund, investing in companies building AI infrastructure, ML tools, and applied AI applications. According to VC Sheet’s fund profiles, the firm offers portfolio companies longer investment timelines, hands-on support from ex-Google technical partners, including model architecture and data pipeline expertise, and access to TensorFlow experts and Google research engineers. For technical AI founders who want the resources of a corporate venture arm without the constraints of a strategic investor, Gradient occupies a useful middle ground.
14. First Round Capital (San Francisco)
First Round has made high-conviction early bets in AI-native software companies, leveraging one of the strongest founder communities in venture capital. According to Banyan VC, the firm uses its extensive network to help scale AI startups faster than most seed investors can. First Round’s model is distinctly community-driven: portfolio founders get access to a private knowledge-sharing platform, curated events, and introductions to enterprise buyers. The firm’s broad network across SaaS, fintech, and healthcare makes it particularly valuable for AI companies building vertical applications.
15. SignalFire (San Francisco)
SignalFire manages over $2.1 billion in assets and differentiates itself through Beacon, a proprietary AI engine that tracks millions of employees and companies to identify investment opportunities before they hit the market. The firm invests at seed and Series A in AI, fintech, and crypto. SignalFire’s data-driven sourcing means the firm often reaches founders before traditional deal flow surfaces them. For AI founders, the fact that SignalFire has built its own ML-powered investment platform signals a level of technical credibility that few generalist firms can match.
The Rest of the Top Investors Globally
This article covers some of the most active investors in our comprehensive directory.
The full resource includes:
- Complete contact information for all 50 firms
- Detailed portfolio company lists
- Specific sector preferences and stage focus
- Average ticket sizes and investment criteria
- Direct investor emails
Download the Complete VC Directory for Different Markets→
How to Approach AI Investors: What Founders Get Wrong
Having the right investor list is only half the equation. According to OpenVC’s 2026 guide, the most common mistakes AI founders make in fundraising are pitching investors at the wrong stage, leading with technology rather than business outcomes, and failing to demonstrate defensibility beyond using a foundation model API.
Match stage and check size. A firm like Bee Partners writing $500K pre-seed cheques and Lightspeed leading $500M growth rounds serve completely different needs. Sending your seed deck to a growth-stage firm wastes everyone’s time. Start with the three or four firms on this list that invest at your exact stage.
Lead with the business problem, not the model. Investors at these firms already understand transformer architectures and diffusion models. What they want to see is why your approach creates a durable competitive advantage — proprietary data, unique distribution, or domain expertise that a well-funded competitor cannot replicate in six months.
Show your data moat. In a world where foundation models are increasingly commoditised, the most defensible AI companies own unique data assets. Investors like Radical, DCVC, and Glasswing explicitly look for data strategies that compound over time.
Warm introductions still outperform cold outreach. The most effective path to any investor on this list is through a founder they have already backed. Use platforms like Pitchwise to organise your data room and investor pipeline, and work your network systematically rather than spraying cold emails.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the biggest AI investors right now?
By dollar volume, the largest AI investors in 2025 were SoftBank (which led OpenAI’s $40 billion round), Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Founders Fund. But “biggest” is not the same as “best fit” — most AI founders will raise from seed and early-stage specialists like the firms profiled in this article rather than the mega-round leaders.
How much funding are AI startups raising in 2026?
The range is enormous. According to OECD data, AI accounted for $258.7 billion in global VC investment in 2025. But 73% of that value came from mega-deals over $100 million. At the seed stage, typical AI rounds range from $2–5 million in the U.S. and $1–3 million in Europe, with AI infrastructure and model companies commanding premiums.
Do AI investors only fund companies building AI models?
No. Most AI-focused investors also back companies that apply AI to specific industries — healthcare, finance, legal, logistics, cybersecurity, and more. Applied AI companies with strong domain expertise and proprietary data are often more attractive to investors than pure model developers, because they face less competition from well-funded foundation model labs.
Should I target AI-specialist VCs or generalist funds?
If your core innovation is AI or ML, specialist investors typically offer deeper technical evaluation, better founder networks in the AI ecosystem, and more credibility with follow-on investors. Generalist funds can work well when your AI is applied to a specific vertical where the VC has deep industry knowledge — for example, a healthcare-focused fund for an AI diagnostics company.
What do AI investors look for beyond the technology?
The top firms consistently evaluate four factors beyond pure technology: proprietary data access that creates a compounding moat, market timing and go-to-market strategy, team quality with a blend of technical and commercial expertise, and financial discipline showing a realistic path to scalable unit economics. As the AI market matures, investors are increasingly sceptical of companies that rely solely on wrapping third-party APIs without defensible differentiation.
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