Saastr · 4 November 2026 · Industry Analysis

AI Spend Hit $177 Billion This Year. Only 22% of It Came Out of Software Budgets. The 4th Annual State of Enterprise AI Report from Menlo Ventures,

Jason Lemkin, GP @ SaaStr

Enterprise AI spend reached $177B in 2026, with only 22% coming from existing software budgets; 55% is net-new money, and AI-native vendors captured just $12.6B of the software-budget portion, while incumbents dominated categories where they already owned the workflow and data.

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Topics: AI (Horizontal) · Enterprise Software

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