Data report · updated 10 November 2026

The Slice of the Pie Index

Who holds the biggest share of the world's AI labs and startups, which fields are taking more of each new founding class, and which cities are climbing. Built from 8,547 listings in 112 countries.

Headlines

AI takeover

82.3% of the 2026 startup cohort is AI-native, up from 8.1% in 2012. The peak so far was 86.8% in 2025.

Fastest-growing field

Robotics & hardware rose 10.7 points to 17.3% of new startups in 2025–26. Fintech lost the most ground (-4.1 points).

City to watch

Stockholm produced 9 new AI startups in 2025–26, against 2 in 2023–24.

The pie today

Every live listing, split by its main field. A company counts in one slice only; AI-native companies in legal, health or finance count in that field.

AI & models: 2250Business software: 1826Fintech: 979Health & bio: 954Robotics & hardware: 771Consumer: 666Developer tools: 292Security: 233Climate & energy: 207Education: 132Property & construction: 120Legal tech: 102Quantum: 158,547LABS AND STARTUPS
FieldListingsShare
AI & models2,25026.3%
Business software1,82621.4%
Fintech97911.5%
Health & bio95411.2%
Robotics & hardware7719%
Consumer6667.8%
Developer tools2923.4%
Security2332.7%
Climate & energy2072.4%
Education1321.5%
Property & construction1201.4%
Legal tech1021.2%
Quantum150.2%

Share of new startups that are AI-native

By founding cohort, YC-backed companies, all outcomes included so closures do not rewrite history.

0%25%50%75%100%2012201420162018202020222024202686.8%

Sector mix of each founding class

0%50%100%2012 AI & models: 7%2012 Business software: 30%2012 Fintech: 7%2012 Health & bio: 5%2012 Robotics & hardware: 6%2012 Developer tools: 7%2012 Consumer: 26%2012 Climate & energy: 1%2012 Security: 3%2012 Education: 6%2012 Property & construction: 2%2012 Legal tech: 0%122013 AI & models: 3%2013 Business software: 31%2013 Fintech: 7%2013 Health & bio: 10%2013 Robotics & hardware: 7%2013 Developer tools: 8%2013 Consumer: 21%2013 Climate & energy: 0%2013 Security: 1%2013 Education: 5%2013 Property & construction: 2%2013 Legal tech: 4%132014 AI & models: 9%2014 Business software: 23%2014 Fintech: 15%2014 Health & bio: 9%2014 Robotics & hardware: 4%2014 Developer tools: 5%2014 Consumer: 20%2014 Climate & energy: 5%2014 Security: 2%2014 Education: 4%2014 Property & construction: 3%2014 Legal tech: 1%142015 AI & models: 7%2015 Business software: 18%2015 Fintech: 13%2015 Health & bio: 15%2015 Robotics & hardware: 7%2015 Developer tools: 6%2015 Consumer: 18%2015 Climate & energy: 6%2015 Security: 5%2015 Education: 2%2015 Property & construction: 3%2015 Legal tech: 2%152016 AI & models: 11%2016 Business software: 20%2016 Fintech: 12%2016 Health & bio: 14%2016 Robotics & hardware: 8%2016 Developer tools: 4%2016 Consumer: 17%2016 Climate & energy: 5%2016 Security: 3%2016 Education: 4%2016 Property & construction: 3%2016 Legal tech: 1%162017 AI & models: 14%2017 Business software: 10%2017 Fintech: 15%2017 Health & bio: 16%2017 Robotics & hardware: 9%2017 Developer tools: 4%2017 Consumer: 16%2017 Climate & energy: 6%2017 Security: 2%2017 Education: 4%2017 Property & construction: 4%2017 Legal tech: 0%172018 AI & models: 12%2018 Business software: 14%2018 Fintech: 15%2018 Health & bio: 24%2018 Robotics & hardware: 6%2018 Developer tools: 4%2018 Consumer: 13%2018 Climate & energy: 4%2018 Security: 3%2018 Education: 4%2018 Property & construction: 1%2018 Legal tech: 1%182019 AI & models: 14%2019 Business software: 14%2019 Fintech: 18%2019 Health & bio: 14%2019 Robotics & hardware: 6%2019 Developer tools: 6%2019 Consumer: 13%2019 Climate & energy: 5%2019 Security: 2%2019 Education: 4%2019 Property & construction: 3%2019 Legal tech: 2%192020 AI & models: 16%2020 Business software: 14%2020 Fintech: 20%2020 Health & bio: 16%2020 Robotics & hardware: 4%2020 Developer tools: 9%2020 Consumer: 8%2020 Climate & energy: 3%2020 Security: 2%2020 Education: 3%2020 Property & construction: 3%2020 Legal tech: 1%202021 AI & models: 19%2021 Business software: 13%2021 Fintech: 23%2021 Health & bio: 15%2021 Robotics & hardware: 4%2021 Developer tools: 6%2021 Consumer: 6%2021 Climate & energy: 5%2021 Security: 2%2021 Education: 4%2021 Property & construction: 2%2021 Legal tech: 1%212022 AI & models: 24%2022 Business software: 8%2022 Fintech: 28%2022 Health & bio: 13%2022 Robotics & hardware: 4%2022 Developer tools: 4%2022 Consumer: 5%2022 Climate & energy: 5%2022 Security: 3%2022 Education: 2%2022 Property & construction: 3%2022 Legal tech: 1%222023 AI & models: 43%2023 Business software: 6%2023 Fintech: 18%2023 Health & bio: 12%2023 Robotics & hardware: 4%2023 Developer tools: 5%2023 Consumer: 1%2023 Climate & energy: 3%2023 Security: 3%2023 Education: 1%2023 Property & construction: 2%2023 Legal tech: 2%232024 AI & models: 49%2024 Business software: 3%2024 Fintech: 10%2024 Health & bio: 13%2024 Robotics & hardware: 9%2024 Developer tools: 2%2024 Consumer: 1%2024 Climate & energy: 2%2024 Security: 4%2024 Education: 1%2024 Property & construction: 3%2024 Legal tech: 3%242025 AI & models: 50%2025 Business software: 3%2025 Fintech: 8%2025 Health & bio: 9%2025 Robotics & hardware: 13%2025 Developer tools: 2%2025 Consumer: 1%2025 Climate & energy: 2%2025 Security: 4%2025 Education: 2%2025 Property & construction: 2%2025 Legal tech: 3%252026 AI & models: 40%2026 Business software: 2%2026 Fintech: 11%2026 Health & bio: 10%2026 Robotics & hardware: 20%2026 Developer tools: 2%2026 Consumer: 1%2026 Climate & energy: 4%2026 Security: 4%2026 Education: 0%2026 Property & construction: 2%2026 Legal tech: 3%26
AI & modelsBusiness softwareFintechHealth & bioRobotics & hardwareDeveloper toolsConsumerClimate & energySecurityEducationProperty & constructionLegal tech
FieldShare 2023–24Share 2025–26Change
Robotics & hardware6.6%17.3%+10.7 pts
Climate & energy2.4%3.1%+0.7 pts
Security3.3%4%+0.7 pts
Legal tech2.4%2.9%+0.5 pts
Quantum0.1%0.1%0 pts
Education1.3%1.2%-0.1 pts
Consumer1%0.9%-0.1 pts
Property & construction2.4%2.2%-0.2 pts
Developer tools3.7%2.3%-1.4 pts
AI & models46%44.6%-1.5 pts
Business software4.4%2.3%-2.1 pts
Health & bio12.5%9.4%-3.1 pts
Fintech13.8%9.8%-4.1 pts

City ranking

The score blends each city's share of the world's AI-native startups (40%), research labs (30%) and new AI startups from the last two years (30%). The top city is set to 100.

#CityScoreAI startupsLabsNew AI 2025–26All listings
1San Francisco United States
100
1,56758662,298
2New York City United States
19.2
3822118652
3London United Kingdom
14
193938423
4Paris France
6
56515170
5Beijing China
5
17031
6Singapore Singapore
3.2
383095
7Seattle United States
3.2
283577
8Palo Alto United States
3.1
114031
9Tokyo Japan
2.9
14018
10Berkeley United States
2.9
3409
11Bengaluru India
2.6
47110129
12Toronto Canada
2.6
332590
13Los Angeles United States
2.5
56015151
14Shanghai China
2.2
33016
15Cambridge United States
2.2
33011
16Boston United States
1.9
42012103
17Cambridge United Kingdom
1.6
52019
18Tel Aviv Israel
1.4
201349
19Munich Germany
1.4
161438
20Seoul Korea, Republic of
1.4
201335
21Hangzhou China
1.4
1206
22Heidelberg Germany
1.4
1203
23Abu Dhabi UAE
1.4
1203
24Tübingen Germany
1.4
0202
25Berlin Germany
1.3
330684
All 1,369 cities

Rising cities

New AI startups founded in 2025–26 against 2023–24, for cities with at least three. Growth is measured against a base of at least three so one-company cities do not top the list.

City2023–242025–26Momentum
Stockholm Sweden29+233.3%
Amsterdam The Netherlands04+133.3%
Salt Lake City United States14+100%
Seoul Korea, Republic of03+100%
Oslo Norway03+100%
San Francisco United States474866+82.7%
Munich Germany24+66.7%
Vancouver Canada13+66.7%
Boston United States912+33.3%
Los Angeles United States1315+15.4%
Paris France1415+7.1%
London United Kingdom3738+2.7%
Bengaluru India1010+0%
Toronto Canada65+-16.7%
New York City United States144118+-18.1%

Countries

CountryListingsLabsAI startupsCitiesNew AI vs prior
United States4,509302,418378+362
United Kingdom5881324369+1
India362311961-1
France322588107+1
Germany271810492+6
Canada24847542+2
China1431410340
Spain9802835+2
Australia9823423+3
Singapore983392-4
Israel8522519-2
Brazil8311725-1
Switzerland7933335+2
Mexico750199+2
Sweden6402413+8
Japan6149300
Korea, Republic of6132414+3
Norway5601120+3
UAE562217-2
Poland540613+1
Nigeria5415100
Czechia5106150
Indonesia49012110
Italy49014280
Turkey4701618+1

Unicorns by country

525 private companies valued at $1bn or more, worth $5.22tn together. AI-first companies hold 47.3% of that value.

CountryUnicornsCombined valuationMost valuable
United States242$3.55tnAnthropic
China20$737bnByteDance
United Kingdom29$174bnRevolut
Canada18$128bnBinance
India41$119bn–
France25$73bn–
Germany17$59bn–
Australia7$57bnCanva
Korea, Republic of12$34bn–
UAE2$31bnTelegram
Israel12$28bn–
Sweden6$20bn–
Mexico7$18bn–
Finland7$18bn–
Brazil8$16bn–
All 525 unicorns16 startup mafias

Funding by country

Disclosed rounds reported in startup news, converted to US dollars. 47 rounds tracked; every round links to its source on the company page.

CountryRoundsDisclosed total
Mexico1$300m
United States2$30m
India2$5m

AI research output, 2025

Papers whose main topic is artificial intelligence, counted once per author country. Source: OpenAlex.

CountryPapers
China52,320
United States35,675
India21,133
United Kingdom10,675
Germany8,811
Indonesia7,304
Japan5,451
France5,392
Italy5,192
Canada5,170
Australia4,881
Korea, Republic of4,546
Hong Kong4,005
Singapore3,466
Spain3,341

Who ships open models

Hugging Face downloads in the last 30 days, by the country of the publishing organisation. Sentence Transformers alone accounts for 12%.

United States
40.3%
China
21.9%
France
2.8%
Germany
2.5%
Austria
0.6%
United Kingdom
0.6%
Full leaderboard of 224 publishers

New AI companies in the UK

3,208 companies with AI in their name registered in the last 12 months under software, data or R&D activity codes, up 80% on the year before. Straight from the Companies House register.

01773532022-10: 152022-11: 172022-12: 202023-01: 1720232023-02: 362023-03: 472023-04: 402023-05: 422023-06: 422023-07: 332023-08: 512023-09: 452023-10: 642023-11: 502023-12: 582024-01: 5620242024-02: 622024-03: 652024-04: 852024-05: 592024-06: 732024-07: 642024-08: 652024-09: 762024-10: 962024-11: 882024-12: 832025-01: 12720252025-02: 1312025-03: 1352025-04: 1412025-05: 1372025-06: 1922025-07: 1852025-08: 2102025-09: 2552025-10: 2602025-11: 2312025-12: 2192026-01: 26020262026-02: 2072026-03: 3242026-04: 3532026-05: 2922026-06: 2732026-07: 3022026-08: 2352026-09: 252
Where they register, last 12 months
London
1,432
Manchester
67
Birmingham
45
Glasgow
37
Edinburgh
29
Bristol
25
Cardiff
22
Milton Keynes
22

By registered office, which is often an accountant or a formation agent rather than where the team works.

Newest on the register

Embed this chart. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Snapshot 2026-11-01. Rule: active companies with AI, artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, neural, LLM or AGI in the name, registered under a software, IT, data or R&D activity code.

Using these numbers

Journalists and researchers are welcome to quote the Index. Please link back so readers can check the method.

Labspie, "The Slice of the Pie Index", 10 November 2026. https://labspie.com/slice

Download the tables: cities · countries · sectors. How it is built: methodology.