With single rounds topping $40 billion and valuations approaching $300 billion, 2025's AI funding activity has crossed a threshold: these are no longer venture bets, but national-scale infrastructure investments. Over $100 billion in disclosed capital has concentrated around four clear themes—redefining who controls compute, where AI talent resides, and which geographies will shape governance for the rest of the decade.

As enterprises race to deploy AI agents in 2026, most will fail—not due to model limitations, but because their data infrastructure cannot keep pace. Here's the audit checklist every CTO and data leader needs.