Ask where the 2026 AI cohort lives and the database gives a blunt answer: San Francisco, then everywhere else. Of the 513 startups we track, 411 list a United States headquarters and 367 name San Francisco specifically, with another 11 San Francisco companies listed as remote hybrid. This page counts the map properly, country by country.
1. Startups by headquarters country
The United Kingdom is a distant second at 14 companies, then Canada at 6, India, Germany and France at 5 each, Australia and Sweden at 3. 49 listings, all from the marketplaces, record no headquarters country at all, and we print that honestly instead of guessing. New York City (25) and London (11) are the only other cities in double figures.
| Headquarters country | Companies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| USA | 411 | 80.1% |
| United Kingdom | 14 | 2.7% |
| Canada | 6 | 1.2% |
| India | 5 | 1.0% |
| Germany | 5 | 1.0% |
| France | 5 | 1.0% |
| Australia | 3 | 0.6% |
| Sweden | 3 | 0.6% |
| Netherlands | 2 | 0.4% |
| Israel | 2 | 0.4% |
| All other countries | 8 | 1.6% |
| Not recorded (marketplace listings) | 49 | 9.6% |
2. What the map means
Batch geography explains most of it: Y Combinator runs in the Bay Area, so its 484 companies cluster there by construction. The interesting signal is the tail: Bengaluru appears with 5 companies, London with 11, and small clusters across Europe. As the platform grows past this cohort, this page is where a real geographic shift will show up first. You can reproduce every number here with the platform search, which filters all 513 listings by headquarters.
3. Following a city
Search the database by city name to build a local watchlist, or open the company pages for the founders behind each pin on the map. Location data comes from the listings themselves and is printed as recorded.
4. The cities behind the countries
Below the country table, the city pattern is starker. San Francisco's 367 exact listings are more than the rest of the world combined several times over. New York City's 25 lean fintech and B2B, London's 11 anchor the UK's 14, and Bengaluru's 5 anchor India's 5. Eleven listings add a remote tag to a San Francisco base, the cohort's small nod to distributed work. For founders choosing where to incorporate their next company, this map is the market speaking; for everyone else, it is a reminder that AI's centre of gravity, in 2026 at least, has not moved.
Source: AIToolGuide 2026 startups database (513 AI companies), compiled from Y Combinator 2026 batch listings and the TrustMRR and Indie Hackers marketplaces.