Almost all startups are dedicating themselves to it

If you are a startup in the US and look for financing, it is almost mandatory And combinator. This accelerator has become a unique barometer of the technology industry, and what the candidates present there is a clear indication of where technological innovation moves. And now it moves towards the AI agents… and above all, towards AI in any sense.

AI agents everywhere. Of the 144 startups that were part of the 2025 spring batch in and Combinator (YC), 67 were recorded in the accelerator database Within the group of “AI agents”. That means that almost 50% of the candidates work in one way or another in this type of technology, and demonstrates that technological startups in the US see this specific segment of AI as the most promising in the short (and perhaps long) term.

Source: pitchbook

Climbing to the car. As they point out In pitchbookthe evolution of the candidates that were presented to each of the annual editions of and Combinator (one per station) has been clear, and there are more and more that focus on developing agents of particular AI and in the AI ​​in general to solve a problem. In the last 2024 winter edition of the 260 startups that were presented, more than half were or developing an AI solution or using it for their projects.

Diversity Tech, dep Artificial intelligence sweeps everything, and that is also true for those who seek to create new successful companies. Previous trends such as mobile applications, social networks or cloud services pass to the background or are already only components of the central focus, which is AI. Technological diversity, betting on other ways of solving problems, seems to be reduced to the minimum expression: everything can be (should it?) Resolve with artificial intelligence.

Now is AI, before it was something else. And Combinator, created in 2005, soon became an oracle of technological investors. If something left there, their options to succeed were older. The trends followed, and while in the first decade of the millennium the startups bet on mobile applications and social networks (Dropbox and Airbnb left there at that time), in the last decade the ones that triumphed were Startups of Fintech, Health and B2B (stripe, doordash).

New bubble in view? The expectations generated by AI are even greater than those generated in the past with mobiles and before with the Internet. The bubble of the Puntocom caused a huge correction in the market, but at that time what is happening in this happened: all startups wanted to point to the Internet (and then to mobiles) because they understood that these technologies could solve many problems. The reality is that they ended up transforming our lives, but in many cases these projects failed because they were not solutions to real problems, but solutions to a problem that did not even exist. The question is with this technology something similar will happen. And of course it is inevitable to talk about a potential bubble of AI.

Many illustrious names. In addition to those mentioned, Twitch (which was born as Justin.TV), Coinbase, Cruise, Instacart, Reddit, or Helion Energy They took their first steps in and Combinator. One of the last examples is especially notable: Scale AI left and combinator in 2016, and a few hours ago an investment of 13,000 million by Meta has been announced, which in addition has signed its founder, Alexandr Wang. The startup success rate is Very modestbut the “durability” of those that leave YC is much higher than the average: more than 50% of the companies that leave there They are still alive After 10 years, compared to 30% usual in other environments.

But that is not necessarily bad. As Andy McLoughlin, of the Uncork Capital investment company, indicated every year the same thing usually happens and “people complain that YC is oversatured with an X technology, but everything now is AI: all the companies in which we invest, which we look for and that it is going through yc is using AI, and the question is if they are good or if they are JOD ******

THE PROBLEM OF THE VALACIONES TRIBUTED. The AI ​​fever has done these startups quickly lift spectacular rounds even without having visible product. YC is a good example of this, and has become an elite event for startups, because there they usually get more financing than in any other event. These emerging companies – pequeñas and unknown – have initial assessments of about 70 million dollars, a spectacular amount for projects that always have a complicated future. Some investors even refuse to “play that game.” Others think otherwise and know that although many can fail, others end up having a spectacular success and it is worth investing “more expensive.”

Image | And combinator

In Xataka | Soon it will not matter who has the most advanced AI model: the authentic battle will be fought by AI agents