February's venture capital landscape revealed a striking trend: investors concentrated capital into fewer, larger deals. The month closed with OpenAI's $110 billion financing - the largest startup investment ever - while overall deal count remained flat. This pattern reflects growing concentration among generative AI leaders and established unicorns, with investors making fewer small bets on unproven startups.

Among active investors, Y Combinator led with 15 reported rounds of $5 million and up, followed closely by Andreessen Horowitz at 14 deals. The incubator's strategy of taking small stakes in follow-on financings for its portfolio companies proved effective. Andreessen Horowitz dominated lead investor rankings with nine reported deals, while Bessemer Venture Partners, Index Ventures, and Accel trailed with five or four each.

When measured by capital deployed rather than deal count, the picture shifted dramatically. SoftBank, Nvidia, and Amazon - backers of OpenAI's massive round - were by far the biggest spenders. Dragoneer Investment Group followed, co-leading Anthropic's $30 billion Series G and Waymo's $16 billion Series D. Despite the concentration of capital, Y Combinator and others maintained activity across stages, ensuring a pipeline of seed-funded companies ready to scale.