The San Francisco Bay Area has raised over $200 billion in AI funding since 2020. This analysis ranks the 15 Bay Area companies with the most capital through February 2026.
The funding landscape shifted from the 2022-2024 peak. Early-stage rounds contracted while mega-rounds ($500M+) to proven companies continued. Corporate investors—Amazon, Google, Microsoft—now account for 40% of total AI funding.
Methodology: Companies must have Bay Area headquarters. Total funding includes equity rounds and disclosed SAFE agreements. Excludes debt and grants.
Quick Statistics
- Total Bay Area AI funding: $200+ billion (2020-Feb 2026)
- Largest single round: OpenAI Series F – $40B (March 2025)
- Companies with $10B+ funding: 3 (OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks)
- Funding concentration: Top 3 hold ~65% of mega-round capital
Top Funded AI Companies in Bay Area
1. OpenAI – San Francisco
Total Funding: $57.9B
Valuation: $500B (Oct 2025); seeking $750B-$830B
Latest Round: Series F – $40B (March 2025)
Key Investors: Microsoft ($13B+), SoftBank ($30B), Thrive Capital, Sequoia
OpenAI leads foundation model development with ChatGPT and GPT series. Revenue exceeded $20B ARR by December 2025. Despite massive revenue, company projects $14B losses in 2026 due to compute costs exceeding $500M quarterly. ChatGPT traffic share dropped from 86.7% (Jan 2025) to 64.5% (Jan 2026) as Google Gemini gained ground.
Microsoft holds ~27% stake valued at $135B. Company restructured from capped-profit nonprofit to OpenAI Group PBC in October 2025, removing profit caps. Currently raising $100B targeting $750B-$830B valuation with Amazon, SoftBank, and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.
2. Anthropic – San Francisco
Total Funding: $13.25B
Valuation: $60B (Dec 2024); reports of $183B-$350B targets
Latest Round: $2B led by Lightspeed (Q4 2024)
Key Investors: Amazon ($4B), Google ($2B+), Spark Capital
Anthropic builds Claude AI family focused on safety and enterprise deployment. Revenue grew from $1B ARR (end-2024) to $5B+ (August 2025). Projections suggest $20B-$26B for 2026.
Founded by former OpenAI executives Dario and Daniela Amodei. Constitutional AI approach emphasizes alignment over raw capability. Amazon partnership includes $4B equity plus $4B AWS credits. Google investment includes Cloud integration. Enterprise-first strategy contrasts with OpenAI’s consumer focus.
3. Databricks – San Francisco
Total Funding: $19.3B
Valuation: $134B (Dec 2025)
Latest Round: Series L – $4B+ (Dec 2025)
Key Investors: Insight Partners, Fidelity, JPMorgan, Andreessen Horowitz
Data intelligence platform unifying analytics, ML, and AI development. Revenue run rate $4.8B (Q3 2025), growing 55% YoY. AI products alone generate $1B+ ARR. Over 700 customers at $1M+ ARR including OpenAI, AT&T, Toyota.
Three massive rounds in 12 months: Series K at $100B (Aug 2025), Series L at $134B (Dec 2025). Lakebase database, Databricks Apps, and Agent Bricks position for enterprise AI deployment. Maintains positive free cash flow despite heavy R&D. Direct competitor to Snowflake with higher growth and valuation.
4. Scale AI – San Francisco
Total Funding: $1.6B primary + $14.3B Meta investment
Valuation: $29B (June 2025)
Latest Round: Meta $14.3B for 49% stake (June 2025)
Key Investors: Meta, Accel, Amazon, Nvidia, Y Combinator
Data labeling and model evaluation for AI training. Projected $2B revenue in 2026 (up from $870M in 2024). Clients include OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, Google, U.S. Department of Defense.
Meta’s $14.3B investment doubled valuation overnight. Founder Alexandr Wang became Meta’s Chief AI Officer. Provides RLHF services, data annotation, and model testing. Operates Remotasks and Outlier subsidiaries. Meta deal raises competitor concerns about data access and independence.
5. Perplexity AI – San Francisco
Total Funding: $500M-$1B+ (estimated)
Valuation: Reports suggest $8B-$9B (2025)
Latest Round: Series C discussions ongoing
AI-powered search engine challenging Google. Combines LLM responses with real-time web search. Growing rapidly in consumer and enterprise search markets.
6. Figure AI – Sunnyvale
Total Funding: $754M+ (Feb 2024); likely additional rounds
Valuation: $2.6B+ (Feb 2024)
Key Investors: OpenAI, Nvidia, Microsoft, Jeff Bezos, Intel Capital
Humanoid robotics company deploying AI-powered robots for manufacturing and logistics. Partnership with BMW for factory deployment. Represents embodied AI category.
7. Glean – Palo Alto
Total Funding: $360M+ (2023)
Valuation: $2.2B+ (2023)
Key Investors: Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins
Enterprise AI search across company data. Connects to 100+ workplace apps. Growing in knowledge management and enterprise search markets.
8. Harvey AI – San Francisco
Total Funding: $100M+ Series B
Valuation: $1.5B+ (2024)
Key Investors: Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins
AI for legal professionals. Automates legal research, contract analysis, document drafting. Serves law firms and in-house legal teams.
9. Writer – San Francisco
Total Funding: $100M+ Series B
Valuation: $1.9B+ (2024)
Key Investors: ICONIQ Growth, Insight Partners
Enterprise AI writing platform. Generates marketing content, documentation, communications. Competes with Jasper and general-purpose LLMs.
10. Sierra – San Francisco
Total Funding: Estimated $100M+
Valuation: $1B+ (2024)
Key Investors: Sequoia, Benchmark
Conversational AI for customer service. Founded by Bret Taylor (ex-Salesforce co-CEO) and Clay Bavor (ex-Google). Enterprise focus on AI agents.
11. Adept AI – San Francisco
Total Funding: $415M+ (2023)
Valuation: Reports vary; potential acquisition discussions
Key Investors: General Catalyst, Spark Capital
AI agent that interacts with software on user’s behalf. Focus on workflow automation. Competitive landscape shifted with emergence of similar tools.
12. Character.AI – Menlo Park
Total Funding: $193M+ (if independent)
Valuation: $1B+ (2023)
Key Investors: Andreessen Horowitz
Conversational AI chatbots with personality. Consumer focus. Potentially acquired or in partnership discussions with Google.
13. Runway ML – San Francisco
Total Funding: $237M+
Valuation: $1.5B+ (2024)
Key Investors: Google, Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures
AI video generation and editing. Competes with Pika Labs, Stability AI. Creative tools for filmmakers and content creators.
14. Twelve Labs – San Francisco
Total Funding: $60M+ Series A
Valuation: $300M+ (2024)
Key Investors: NEA, NVIDIA
Video understanding AI. Enables search, analysis, and generation of video content. Enterprise and developer API focus.
15. Pika Labs – San Francisco
Total Funding: $80M+ (2024)
Valuation: $500M+ (2024)
Key Investors: Lightspeed, Homebrew
AI video generation. Competes with Runway ML and Stability AI. Consumer and creative professional focus.
Conclusion
The Bay Area’s position as the AI funding capital remains unchallenged through February 2026. However, the nature of funding has fundamentally changed. The experimentation phase ended. Capital now concentrates in companies with proven revenue and clear paths to scale.
Three companies—OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks—captured over $90 billion of the $200+ billion total. This concentration reflects investor conviction that AI infrastructure requires massive capital deployment and that only a handful of companies will achieve sustainable competitive advantages.
For founders, the bar is higher. Series A companies need $5M+ ARR. Series B requires proven unit economics. Mega-rounds go to companies already generating $100M+ revenue or possessing irreplaceable technical advantages.
For investors, the power law intensified. Returns will concentrate in the top 3-5 companies per category. Corporate strategic value matters as much as financial metrics. Technical differentiation trumps market timing.
The companies on this list will change by year-end 2026. Some will grow into valuations. Others will struggle to justify capital raised. Several will exit through acquisition or IPO. And new entrants will emerge from unexpected directions.
But one pattern is clear: AI funding is no longer about potential. It’s about execution, revenue, and demonstrable market leadership.