David Cohen at Web Summit Vancouver: Where Does the Smart Money Land in 2026?

Why It Matters

The talk signals where smart capital is concentrating in 2026—toward assets with sustainable margins and defensible data or hardware advantages—shaping funding flows, startup strategy, and which parts of the AI value chain will capture long-term economic value.

Summary

At Web Summit Vancouver David Cohen argued that the AI boom is still in its early innings, but investors are shifting to a “flight to quality” that favors lower layers of the stack—hardware and infrastructure—because many middle-layer AI companies show weak or negative gross margins. He and other panelists said application-layer startups face heavy attack from rapidly improving core models unless they possess durable defensibility: proprietary, hard-to-extract data, physical-world integration, regulation-based moats, or specialized vertical expertise. For early-stage investors, quality is contextual—verticalized, hardware-linked or data-centric businesses are more attractive than generic software wrapped around models. Panelists also noted short-term opportunities for individuals to monetize simple AI-enabled wrappers that institutional investors may overlook.

Original Description

Q1 of 2026 was the largest quarter for venture investment in many years. This session explores the sectors that are attracting the most aggressive capital today. From vertical AI agents to massive infrastructure behind next-gen energy and robotics. Join us as a panel of top VCs find out who is winning the fight to quality and which ‘sure bets’ from 2025 are losing their luster.

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