A few VC firms are poised to win the future

A few VC firms are poised to win the future

James Thorne, Stephanie Zhu

Thu, July 30, 2026 at 12:00 PM GMT+3 1 min read

In 2022, two events profoundly reordered the venture capital landscape. The Fed began a hiking cycle that would take rates from near zero to over 5%, cratering private tech valuations and shutting off the IPO market. Then, OpenAI released ChatGPT, kicking off a global scramble to fund the future of AI.

The story since then has been one of concentration. A small number of AI companies absorbed vast amounts of venture capital and reached valuations that were once unfathomable in private markets. The number of VC firms shrank, but some grew ever larger and came to dominate the startup market.

If AI proves to be the seismic technological shift many believe it to be, those leading VC firms now have an opportunity to reap vast profits in the coming years.

*The top 30 VC firms were selected based on their investment track record. A full methodology can be found in our Emerging Tech Indicator report.

This article originally appeared on PitchBook News