AI Valuation Multiples 2026

The release of ChatGPT in 2022 was a turning point for generative AI startups. Venture capitalists, corporations, and founders rushed in as real-world applications became clear.

ChatGPT sparked massive AI investment, but funding rounds stayed near 6,000 per year. This shows the overall fundraising climate matters more than single events.

By February 2024, 692 AI funding rounds had been recorded, indicating the year was unlikely to set new records unless activity picked up later. For the full year, funding rounds declined 10% year-over-year to 5,084, though this drop did not lead to lower overall capital invested in the sector.

After three years of decline, AI funding rounds jumped 50% in 2025 to a new high of 7,646, beating the 2021 peak. The rebound was driven by stronger investor conviction, the rise of agentic AI and enterprise use cases, and a broader recovery in venture capital. Unlike 2021, when capital flooded all of tech, the 2025 surge was focused on AI.

Q1 2026 recorded 2,887 AI funding rounds, signaling the recovery may not a one-off. Late-reported deals may push the number higher. Whether 2026 sets another record will depend on later-stage activity and the long-awaited IPOs of frontier AI labs.

Deal volumes by funding stage: AI’s formative era

Right now, investors are still getting accustomed to the rising interest in new startups focused on applications of Artificial Intelligence.

Our analysis found that Seed deals constituted 32% of the total AI fundraising deals between 2015 and 2024 (September). This proves that the AI ecosystem is in its formative era with many newer startups trying to hop on to the scene, raise seed stage from venture capital investors, and work towards a use-case solution of artificial intelligence.

When we look holistically at Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A rounds, they make up roughly 60% of fundraising for AI companies in the same period.

As an industry matures, however, the pattern of funding rounds changes. In the early stages, pre-seed and seed rounds dominate as founders raise initial capital to test ideas and build prototypes.

Once the sector shows traction, focus shifts to Series A and B rounds aimed at scaling operations and expanding market reach. These rounds usually attract larger institutional investors and private equity firms.

Other funding types include crowdfunding, grants, non-equity assistance, angel rounds, and debt financing, as defined by Crunchbase.

Total capital raised in AI: Multi-billion rounds dominate

After ChatGPT’s breakthrough in 2022, tech giants quickly saw AI’s potential and raced to dominate the LLM space. While thousands of smaller startups raised seed funding, companies like Microsoft and Amazon poured in billions to secure leading positions.

As a result, late-stage and corporate rounds reached record levels. Investments in OpenAI, Anthropic, and Inflection rank among the largest funding rounds in history:

• $10 billion investment in ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI by Microsoft
• $4 billion investment in Anthropic by Amazon
• $2 billion investment in Anthropic by Google
• $1.3 billion investment in InflectionAI by NVIDIA, Microsoft, and others

Total capital invested in AI hit a new record of $256 billion in 2025, almost three times the previous high of $95 billion in 2024.

The first quarter of 2026 alone reached $289 billion, already surpassing the full-year 2025 total. This surge was driven by mega-rounds in frontier AI labs and AI infrastructure players.

Top investors in AI: Jumping on the bandwagon

With the sudden shift of investors’ interest in AI, especially given the decline of many other investing themes, such as crypto or fintech, venture capital investors of all sizes jumped on the AI bandwagon. Naturally, the USA emerged as the largest funding source for upcoming AI startups. The likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, and Tiger Global were leading the biggest rounds.

At the same time, the investor universe is not limited to the bigwigs of the VC industry. Across the ~53,000 funding rounds, more than 200 funds were invested in 10 or more AI companies, suggesting a vast investor landscape. The investor locations were also not limited to the USA, but many were from emerging tech hubs, such as London, Berlin, or Paris.

We see three main types of investors that are currently active in the AI space – Financial, Strategic, and Sovereign.

In the wake of AI’s breakthroughs, corporate giants swiftly recognized the transformative potential of AI and started to partner with AI companies with proven potential (such as Microsoft’s $10 billion investment into OpenAI) or embarked on internal AI initiatives.

A not-so-common approach was seen when, in March 2024, Microsoft decided to form a long-term partnership with the French AI company MistralAI instead of wholly acquiring the technology or the company. This hints at a new playbook that larger companies may deploy to take the lead in the AI race.

Companies across sectors, from tech titans to traditional enterprises, sought to harness AI to streamline operations, enhance decision-making processes, and unlock new revenue streams. Some of the largest investors and acquirers include Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Volkswagen, and Intel.

Median deal sizes in AI: 3x over the 7 years

The median round sizes dipped in the recent years as venture capitalists readjusted their investment appetite following 2021 rush. We expect the median deal sizes to stay largely unchanged, as the multi-billion investment rounds will not translate into bread-and-butter AI companies.

As of H1 2025 we see that:

• AI startup raising pre-seed would have a median deal size of $500k
• AI startup raising seed capital would have a median deal size of $3M
• AI startup raising Series A capital would have a median deal size $12M
• AI startup raising Series B capital would have a median deal size of $28M
• AI startup raising Series C capital would have a median deal size of $56M

AI startup valuations – by funding rounds

Reflecting the growing interest in AI and the increasing capital requirements to train or use AI, both the median funding round sizes as well as median valuations have been growing over the years.

So, what are the current AI company valuations in 2025?

The median AI pre-money valuations as of 2024 were:

• AI startup raising pre-seed capital would have a median $3.6M valuation
• AI startup raising seed capital would have a median $10.0M valuation
• AI startup raising Series A capital would have a median $45.7M valuation
• AI startup raising Series B capital would have a median $366.5M valuation
• AI startup raising Series C capital would have a median $795.2M valuation

Pre-money valuation is the total equity value of a company before receiving cash from a funding round. With a larger valuation and a similar amount of money raised founders are giving away less equity in the company.

Now that we have seen the trend of AI startup valuations above, a natural question may arise: How to value an AI company?

Well, valuing a startup is notoriously difficult, so many investors rely on rule of thumb to put in a number in a term sheet. Earlier-stage investors, such as Techstars or YCombinator have their own guidelines.

Valuation is also commonly a result of negotiations and investor interest. Many interested investors allow the founders to push up the valuation.

AI valuation multiples: 24x revenue and above

As AI is a relatively new, as well as capital-intensive segment of technology, there majority of the Artificial Intelligence deals are concentrated in capital raisings rather than traditional M&A in AI. Naturally, the available AI valuation multiples are primarily coming from larger capital raises.

Below we collected a set of revenue multiples from large capital raising transactions and M&A deals. The median revenue multiple for AI companies stood at 24.2x.

It’s important to note the valuation multiples are much higher in capital raising transactions than in 100% sales. The sample also includes the largest and most successful companies, so founders looking to sell their AI startups should take this data with a grain of salt. The valuation multiple will likely be significantly lower in the sale offer you receive.

World of AI – 2026 and beyond

The outlook for AI remains exceptionally strong heading into 2026. Conviction among financial and strategic investors has only deepened, with record funding rounds in 2025 and sustained momentum in Q1 2026 signaling that the AI cycle still hasn’t peaked (or has it? only time will tell…). The key question is no longer whether AI will reshape industries, but how valuations, public market debuts, and real-world deployment will unfold over the next 12–18 months. The road ahead for AI will be characterized by:

• A wave of long-anticipated IPOs: Market attention is centered on potential public listings from OpenAI, Anthropic, Cerebras, and other category leaders, which would mark the largest test yet of public market appetite for AI at scale
• Robotics and physical AI moving from lab to deployment: The convergence of foundation models with robotics, IoT, and edge hardware is unlocking real-world use cases, from humanoid robots to autonomous industrial systems, that were considered years away just 24 months ago
• Ethical and regulatory considerations: As AI capabilities expand into agentic systems and physical environments, governance, accountability, and transparency are becoming board-level concerns rather than abstract debates

This is our first report of its kind on Artificial Intelligence capital raises and valuations, and we hope to update it regularly with new data and insights as they become available.

Shaheer Ansari

M&A Analyst

Shaheer joined Aventis Advisors in 2023. Previously, he worked for Goldman Sachs in the Credit Risk division. At Aventis, he supports the team with deal logistics, industry research, and business outreach and development. Shaheer enjoys learning about different business models and how strategic transactions can unlock their hidden potential. His varied experience in finance, media, and marketing enables him to view situations from a holistic and unique perspective. Outside of work, Shaheer enjoys exploring new cuisines, diving into non-fiction books, and creating content on social media.