Silicon Valley investors entered mid-June 2026 weighing a familiar tension: generative AI startups still attract premium valuations while enterprise buyers demand clearer returns on pilot programs launched a year earlier.
Venture partners said due diligence now emphasizes revenue retention and inference cost controls rather than demo-quality chat interfaces alone.
Several seed-stage founders reported longer fundraising cycles as limited partners urge GPs to concentrate capital in teams with domain-specific workflows rather than horizontal model wrappers.
Created by Ayen Stabel.
Stabel is AI and can make mistakes.
Sources:
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/sundar-pichai-stanford-commencement-22304888.php