Global AI investment hits record $430 billion in first half of 2026, exceeding the whole of 2025 as investment boom deepens – EY

Global venture capital investment in AI reached an all-time high of approximately $430 billion in the first half of 2026 alone, surpassing $254 billion invested across the whole of 2025 and more than four times as large as the total investment just three years ago. That’s according to the latest EY Ireland AI Investment Trends report for the first half of 2026.

The scale of spend is striking against the backdrop of persistent talk of an AI bubble, with spending in the April to June quarter alone exceeding the entirety of 2025, according to an analysis of global investment data by EY Ireland’s Technology Media & Entertainment and Telecommunications (TMT) team.

In addition, spending plans from hyperscalers Amazon, Alphabet and Meta are expected to total between $490 billion and $520 billion in 2026 alone. The figure puts the industry on track for an annual run-rate of close to $1 trillion, a level of spend that was viewed as an alarming three-to-five-year projection as recently as two years ago.

Looking ahead, investment in data centres, advanced chips, networking and cloud capacity is projected to reach $2.9 trillion between 2025 and 2028, as a growing share of investment is directed towards the foundational technologies and assets that make AI deployment possible.

At the funding level, deal concentration continues; more than 40% of total H1 2026 deal value came from just four major transactions, with frontier model providers OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI collectively raising $172 billion. Other key deals included Sierra (US$950 million), valuing it at more than $15 billion; Replit (US$400 million) and several European deals, including Helsing (US$1.8 billion), Neura Robotics (US$1.4 billion), Advanced Machine Intelligence (US$1 billion) and Mistral (US$830 million).

Semiconductor VC funding also remained a distinct area of strength, with $5 billion invested across 84 transactions in Q1 2026, the second-strongest quarter on record for the segment.

Meanwhile, sovereign wealth funds are forecast to deploy more than $100 billion into AI and digitalisation this year, up from $66 billion last year, led by Middle East funds including Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, the Kuwait Investment Authority and the Qatar Investment Authority.

Grit Young, EY Ireland Partner and Technology, Media and Telecoms Lead, said:

“In spite of the continued discussion of an AI bubble, the total VC investment in Generative AI in the last quarter alone exceeded the whole of 2025. Two years ago, alarm bells were ringing at the prospect of $1 trillion of industry spend over three to five years; today we’re nearly at that figure in a single year from the hyperscalers alone.

What is driving this is a rapid maturing of the sector, with AI investment moving beyond frontier models and consumer applications to one that increasingly encompasses infrastructure, sovereignty and energy. Continued AI advancement depends on sustained infrastructure investment, while nations and trading blocs are increasingly focusing on the need to ensure sovereign capability in AI.

The defining question for the next decade may be less about who develops the most capable AI models and more about who can finance and build the computer layer and infrastructure that sit beneath enterprise AI adoption, and increasingly, can ensure sovereign control.”

Investment accelerates in Europe and Ireland

The increased focus on sovereign AI is particularly pronounced in Europe, where the political backdrop for cross-border technology deals involving cloud services, IT infrastructure and hardware continues to shift. Globally, national authorities and regulators are signalling that they are increasingly prepared to intervene where technology assets touch on strategic interests, competitive sensitivities or critical infrastructure.

The EU has adopted a set of interlocking initiatives as part of a coordinated effort to build European AI infrastructure and enhance Europe’s AI competitiveness. This encompasses a range of strategies, as well as significant investment in AI Factories across the bloc. In addition, AI research funding will be increased through the Horizon Europe programme, which aims to double annual AI investment to more than €3 billion. This pan-European approach is very welcome, as catching up with the leading nations is beyond the capacity of any individual Member State.

There are signs that these policies and instruments are beginning to pay off. Direct funding into European AI enterprises reached €21.3 billion in the first five months of 2026, surpassing the full-year 2025 total. As a result, AI companies now account for roughly 40% of all venture transactions across the continent.

Against this global backdrop, Ireland continues to build its own AI capacity. Ireland’s AI industry continues to attract investment across a diverse range of sectors, from fintech and quantum computing to healthcare, space technology and AI infrastructure. Notable deals include Fonoa ($110m), Equal1 ($60m) and CameraMatics (€49m).

Irish companies working in the development of Data centres have also witnessed significant Private Equity investment, with H&MV recently announcing an investment that valued the firm north of €1 billion. H&MV joins a long list of Irish engineering firms to benefit from the data centre boom globally including E&I, Winthrop Technologies, and Echelon.

Enterprise AI adoption more than doubled between 2023 and 2025, rising from 8% to 20% of businesses – in line with the EU average, though behind leading markets such as Denmark (42%) and Finland (38%). Adoption also rises sharply with company size, reaching 58% among large enterprises compared with 29% for medium-sized businesses and 17% for small enterprises.

“Ireland already has or is actively building many of the capabilities required to benefit from the continued growth in global AI investment. These include skilled talent, energy and digital infrastructure, a vibrant AI R&D sector, strong industry-academia collaboration, and a growing AI start-up community. When you add some of the world’s leading data centre engineering and construction companies to that mix, Ireland has all the ingredients for success. The challenge now is to go faster and further in supporting the incredible entrepreneurial talent that we have in Ireland,” said Grit Young.