Global corporate investment in artificial intelligence reached $581.7 billion in the period covered by Stanford's 2026 AI Index Report, a 130 percent increase over the prior year. Generative AI accounted for a disproportionate share of that growth, with investment in generative AI systems climbing nearly fivefold to $170.9 billion.

Private investment made up the majority of the total, reaching $344.7 billion and rising 127.5 percent year over year. Private funding now accounts for roughly 60 percent of all corporate AI investment tracked by the report, and generative AI alone captured nearly half of all private AI funding during the period.

The report also measures the value AI is generating for consumers directly. Stanford researchers estimated that U.S. consumer surplus attributable to AI, the value users receive beyond what they pay, reached $172 billion annually by early 2026, up from $112 billion the year before. The median value captured per individual user roughly tripled over the same span.

Generative AI adoption within business functions also continued to widen, with the report finding generative AI now used in at least one function at 70 percent of surveyed organizations, with China and Europe posting the largest year-over-year increases in adoption. Stanford researchers described the combined investment and adoption trends as evidence that AI has moved from an experimental technology to core business infrastructure across large portions of the global economy.

Source: Stanford HAI, 2026 AI Index Report -- https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2026-ai-index-report/economy