AI takes 83% of U.S. venture funding as Chamath questions revenue quality
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Artificial intelligence companies accounted for about 83% of U.S. venture capital deal value through September 2026, according to Social Capital.
Social Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya also raised concerns about the quality of revenue generated across the AI industry in a post carrying the same chart.
The chart showed AI and machine-learning companies’ share of U.S. venture capital deal value rising to 83% in 2026 through September, up from 65% in 2025. The share climbed from 10% in 2015 to 18% in 2018 and 26% in 2020 before reaching 31% in 2021 and remaining at that level in 2022.
AI’s share of venture capital deal value then increased to 39% in 2023 and 51% in 2024 before reaching 65% last year. The 2026 year-to-date figure was the highest share shown in the chart.
Palihapitiya said he suspects that 70% to 80% of AI companies’ revenue comes from other AI companies that have raised money from the venture capital industry. He argued that the concern was not circular revenue itself, but the quality of that revenue.
Palihapitiya compared the dynamic with a pattern he said had appeared during the software-as-a-service cycle in the early to mid-2010s.
Here is the chart:
Social Capital
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