California dominates U.S. startup funding in 2026, surpassing all previous annual totals

California companies have raised more than $385 billion in seed- through growth-stage funding this year, surpassing all U.S. startup funding totals for any single year on record. This figure, according to Crunchbase data, is more than double last year’s total and represents over three-fourths of all U.S. startup funding. The state’s share of U.S. startup funding has been trending upward for the past three years, driven largely by San Francisco-based AI unicorns and broader Silicon Valley and Southern California activity. Notable deals include $16 billion for Waymo in February, $5 billion for Databricks in August, and $12 billion for Prometheus, co-founded by Jeff Bezos, in spring 2026. Safe Superintelligence also secured $5 billion in a Nvidia-led round this summer. Despite the prominence of OpenAI and Anthropic, which account for over half of California’s funding, even without these deals, the state still secured a disproportionate share of the largest U.S. equity rounds. Crunchbase data also highlights that California companies have raised nearly $62 billion in seed- and early-stage funding so far in 2026, representing about 57% of all U.S. funding at these stages. This marks a record level, underscoring California’s continued dominance in the startup ecosystem.