A small group of venture capital firms dominated a new ranking of investments in U.S. artificial intelligence companies, with Andreessen Horowitz leading and 10 firms taking 60% of the top 100’s points.
The 2026 Strebulaev-Jackson AI Venture Ranking was made public Oct. 20 and counts qualifying investments through Aug. 31, 2026. Its scores come from the authors’ model, rather than from cash invested or fund returns.
Andreessen Horowitz scored 22,509 points. Lightspeed Venture Partners had 14,422, placing second, and Menlo Ventures took third with 13,464. Sequoia followed in fourth place with 10,855.
Together, the three leaders accounted for 29% of the points assigned to the top 100 firms. Investments dating from 2023 onward contributed 80% of that group’s total, giving recent deals a large role in the result.
For Andreessen Horowitz, AI accounted for 64% of its all-sector score at the Aug. 31 cutoff. The corresponding share for Sequoia was 39%. Both comparisons use scores calculated at the same cutoff as the AI list.
In the firm-ranking release, the authors said they reviewed 2,254 companies and designated 706 as AI businesses. The analysis covers U.S.-headquartered companies and excludes secondary transactions.
To allocate points, the model weighs valuation, dilution, net profit, value add, human-capital decay and how credit is shared between venture firms and individual investors. The authors attributed the concentration of points to a small number of AI companies and the weight of recent investments.
The authors said the distribution is steeper than in their earlier rankings. They suggested founders could use the list when considering potential backers, while limited partners should weigh the concentration of points and the reliance on valuations of still-private companies.
Much of the value reflected in the model has yet to be realized, the authors cautioned, and private-company valuations may change. They also said they plan a global version of the ranking.
