US-based startups raised $174 billion in venture capital in February 2026 alone — 92 percent of the global total, according to TechBullion's analysis of PitchBook and Crunchbase data. [1] The concentration is unprecedented. In 2020, the US share of global VC was approximately 50 percent. By 2024 it had climbed to 65 percent. Now it is functionally a monopoly.

The headline number deserves an asterisk the size of OpenAI. Sam Altman's company has raised multiple rounds exceeding $10 billion each since late 2025, and these mega-rounds alone account for a substantial fraction of the monthly total. Strip out OpenAI and the US share drops — but only to approximately 78 percent, still the highest non-distorted figure on record. [1]

AI dominates the funding landscape. Forbes reports that in the first half of 2025, 64 percent of US venture funding went to AI startups. [2] The 2026 figure is higher. Investors are not spreading bets across sectors; they are concentrating capital in a single thesis. The result is a venture market that looks less like a diversified portfolio and more like a leveraged bet on one technology.

For the rest of the world, the math is stark. Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa are splitting 8 percent of global venture capital. The talent follows the money, and the money is in San Francisco.

-- DAVID CHEN, Beijing