In the first half of 2026, investment and financing activities in the global AI field will continue to operate at a high level. According to public data, the total financing amount of AI related companies worldwide exceeded 45 billion US dollars in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of about 18%. Capital is accelerating its flow from the basic model layer to the application layer and infrastructure layer, showing significant structural changes.
##Big Model Track: From Arms Race to Rational Investment
In the first half of 2026, the financing heat in the field of large models has declined compared to 2025, but the amount of single financing is still astonishing. OpenAI has completed a new round of funding exceeding $100 billion, with a valuation exceeding $400 billion. The funds will mainly be used for the development of next-generation models and the expansion of computing infrastructure. Anthropic and xAI have also completed financing of billions of dollars each.
It is worth noting that investors are starting to pay more attention to the commercialization capabilities and profit expectations of large model companies, rather than just technical indicators. Companies that can demonstrate clear revenue growth paths and industry implementation cases are more favored by capital.
##AI Application Layer: A Hundred Flowers Bloom
The application layer is the most active area for financing in the first half of 2026. Start up companies in vertical fields such as AI programming tools, AI legal assistants, AI medical diagnosis, and AI education have frequently received large amounts of financing. In the AI programming assistant track alone, multiple companies raised a total of over $2 billion in financing in the first half of the year, reflecting the market's strong confidence in AI to enhance productivity.
The field of AI healthcare is also receiving significant attention. Several startups focused on AI assisted imaging diagnosis and drug discovery have completed Series B and C funding, with single funding amounts ranging from $50 million to $200 million.
##Infrastructure layer: Continuous strong demand for computing power
The fields of AI chips and data center infrastructure continue to attract a large amount of capital. AI chip startups outside of NVIDIA are gaining more attention, with dedicated chip companies focused on inference optimization showing active performance in the first half of 2026. At the same time, data center supporting technologies such as liquid cooling and high bandwidth interconnection have also received financing support.
##Regional distribution: Led by China and the United States
From a regional perspective, the United States still holds the largest share of AI financing (about 65%), China ranks second (about 20%), followed closely by Europe and Israel. China's AI financing mainly focuses on three directions: autonomous driving, large-scale models, and AI applications.
##Outlook for the second half of 2026
Analysts believe that the AI financing heat is expected to continue in the second half of the year, but investors will pay more attention to technological differentiation and commercial implementation verification. The financing of the basic model layer may further concentrate on the top, while investment opportunities in the application layer are still broad. For startups, identifying vertical scenarios and quickly achieving business closure will be the key to obtaining capital support.