Venture capital is booming but not evenly. The US dominates global funding with fewer deals, bigger checks, and a clear AI obsession.

From January to April 2026, US VC funding surged 178% year-over-year. The total capital deployed ballooned, even as deal volume barely budged. Investors are backing fewer startups but writing much larger checks. AI infrastructure and deep tech lead the charge, with mega rounds reaching tens of billions.

OpenAI raised $122 billion, Anthropic $30 billion, and xAI $20 billion in that window. These outliers pull the entire market upward. Meanwhile, the US accounted for 80% of global VC funding value despite only 30% of deal volume. China trails with 7% of funding but a higher deal count share.

But this capital surge has a glaring blind spot. Black startup founders continue to get crumbs. In 2025, startups with Black founders raised just 0.32% of US venture funding — less than $1 billion. That share plummeted more than two-thirds from three years ago. Q1 2026 showed a slight uptick with $643 million raised, but half came from one massive $350 million AI chip startup round.

Black founders remain an afterthought in the VC world despite the AI boom. The 2021 peak funding year for Black-led startups was $5.2 billion, just 1.5% of the total US venture pie. Since then, political shifts have silenced conversations about racial funding gaps. Venture capitalists claim they seek outliers regardless of background, but systemic barriers persist.

Canada tells a different, troubling story. Venture capital investment there has collapsed to its fourth-lowest quarterly total since 2017. Foreign investors pulled back sharply. US investors cut their share from 58% to 40%. Overall, Canadian startups raised $1.12 billion in Q1 2026, down from $1.44 billion a year earlier. Without foreign capital, domestic sources partly plugged the gap, but the market feels frozen.

Bridge financing—short-term funding to keep companies afloat—now makes up 38% of Canadian deals, the highest ever. Canadian venture fundraising is also weak. Thirteen funds raised $362 million total, with one government-backed fund accounting for 83% of that. The future of Canadian tech startups looks underfunded and shaky.

Africa’s startup scene raised $290.3 million across 21 rounds in Q1 2026. That’s down 86% quarter-over-quarter. The biggest deal was an $80 million round by Video Rebirth, an outlier in an otherwise sparse quarter. Logistics and commerce sectors captured nearly half of the capital, concentrated mostly in Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt.

Globally, VC funding remains concentrated in a handful of massive deals. In April alone, three megadeals totaled over $12 billion, led by AI projects. Startups specializing in AI infrastructure, robotics, and biotech dominate deal flow and valuations. The median age for new unicorns is just four years—speed and scale are the new norms.

VCs increasingly bet on vertical, specialized AI startups rather than broad, horizontal platforms. Legal tech automators, robotic process disruptors, and hyperlocal service delivery ventures attract record funding. Meanwhile, offline-to-online models prove they can still scale quickly and profitably.

The message is clear: venture capital is alive and well, but the gains are concentrated. The US commands the lion’s share, driven by AI and deep tech megadeals. Regions like Canada and Africa face funding droughts and retreating foreign investment. And Black founders in the US remain locked out of the capital flood despite the AI boom.

If venture capital wants to claim progress, it must stop celebrating headline numbers and start fixing structural inequities. Otherwise, the boom is just another bubble that leaves most founders behind.