Cerebras · TechCrunch AI
Benchmark’s full partnership weighs in at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026
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What does one of Silicon Valley’s most successful venture firms think founders are getting wrong?
Key facts
- According to the OECD, AI companies captured 61% of global venture capital investment in 2025, $258.7 billion of $427.1 billion invested overall
- This year, it made one of the biggest changes in its own playbook, raising approximately $2 billion across a $750 million flagship fund and its first $1.25 billion growth fund
- Disrupt 2026 returns to San Francisco’s Moscone West from October 13–15, bringing together more than 10,000 founders, investors, operators, and innovators across six stages, roundtables, breakouts
- Before Altman joined Benchmark, Alt Capital had raised $425 million across its early-stage investing activities
Summary
Rather than another conversation about where venture capital has been, the focus is on where it goes next: where the next generation of startups will come from, which assumptions founders should reconsider, and which opportunities the partners believe are still hiding in plain sight. Benchmark has spent decades building a reputation around concentrated early-stage investing. Sit front and center to get tomorrow’s venture insights at Disrupt. m. AI has reshaped the venture market with extraordinary speed.