UK AI investment hits record £4.56bn in Q2 2026
Investment into UK artificial intelligence companies reached a record high in Q2 2026, according to new data from Beauhurst.
Equity fundraising worth £4.56bn has been tracked for the second quarter of the year, 4.1% more than in the first quarter and nearly three times more than in the same period of 2025 (186.8% increase).
The figure makes Q2 2026 the strongest quarter on record for UK AI investment by amount raised, surpassing the previous high of £4.38bn in Q1 2026, with almost three times the amount invested in the second quarter of 2025 (£1.59bn).
Across all sectors, Beauhurst has so far tracked 1,070 UK equity deals in Q2 2026, worth £8.01bn. With 269 rounds of AI equity fundraising, AI accounted for around one in four UK equity deals in the quarter, and 57% of the total capital invested.
The total invested is expected to rise further as unannounced deals continue to be identified from Companies House filings.
Henry Whorwood, managing director of Beauhurst Insights, said: “Q2 was a landmark quarter for UK AI investment. What stands out is not just the scale of capital going into AI, but the breadth of the companies raising. The UK is attracting major investment across life sciences, AI infrastructure, financial services, advanced engineering and enterprise software. AI is now a major driver of the UK private-company market.”
“The headline figure is already a record, but it is unlikely to be the final number. Unannounced fundraising deals often come to light in the weeks and months after a quarter closes, so we expect the Q2 picture to continue developing.
“There has been a rapid increase in investment into AI, with the last two quarters seeing significantly more investment than ever before. Although investment has almost tripled year on year, growth has not been consistent so there will be a great deal of interest in what the rest of the year will bring. It is also interesting to note that 80% of the total invested into UK AI was raised by just eight AI equity raises, with life sciences and health attracting the most investment by value.”
Beauhurst provides data and analysis on the UK’s private-company ecosystem, tracking high-growth businesses, fundraisings, investors, transactions and key company milestones for organisations looking to understand private markets, identify opportunities and monitor emerging sectors across the UK economy.
Its analysis of Companies House filings shows that eight £100m+ AI equity raises accounted for almost 80% of disclosed AI investment in the quarter, with fundraising rounds by Isomorphic Labs, Ineffable Intelligence, NScale, PhysicsX and Fractile driving a significant share of the total.
AI investment during the quarter was led by life sciences, AI infrastructure and enterprise software, with Life sciences and health securing the most investment by value, with 36 deals raising £1.52bn, driven primarily by Isomorphic Labs’ £1.47bn fundraise. AI Infrastructure, compute and chips was the second-largest theme, led by NScale, Fractile and Quantum Motion. Financial services, payments and regtech recorded the highest deal count among the largest categories, with 64 AI fundraisings in Q2.
The Q2 figures may rise further as Beauhurst continues to identify unannounced equity deals for several months after the end of each quarter. This means both the final deal count and aggregate amount raised could increase as the dataset matures.