Madrona’s annual IA40 list shows an AI industry splitting in two

The winners on Madrona’s 2026 Intelligent Applications 40 list, grouped by funding stage. (Madrona Image) Seattle-based venture capital firm Madrona released its sixth annual Intelligent Applications 40 list this week, naming 45 private AI companies (the five extras come from ties) that have collectively raised $410 billion from investors across the industry. Three of them — Anthropic, OpenAI and Databricks — account for 92% of that total.