AI takes 75% of Europe's $25bn third-quarter startup funding

European startups raised $25bn in the third quarter, their strongest venture funding quarter in four years, according to Crunchbase data reported by The Next Web. AI companies received $18.8bn, or 75% of the total, the highest share on record. Overall funding rose 77% from $14bn in the third quarter of 2025. Four companies accounted for close to 40% of Europe's funding: Mistral, Nscale, Helsing and Quantum Systems each raised more than $1bn. North American startup funding fell 35% from the previous quarter to $92bn, mostly because OpenAI and Anthropic had no new megarounds; it remained 50% higher than a year earlier.