YC is betting on robotics and physical AI startups

Went through 208 startups from YC's Winter and Summer 2026 batches to see what they're actually funding this year.

Robotics was the biggest surprise. There are 32 robotics/physical AI companies, exactly as many as AI infrastructure companies. A lot of them are working on pretty specific problems: autonomous factories, CNC machining, warehouse work, waste management, solar construction, nuclear inspection, etc.

Some other numbers that stood out:

145 of the 208 companies are tagged AI.

24 are building developer/agent tools. A lot of these aren't really about helping you write code anymore. They're about managing, monitoring, and debugging coding agents.

23 are fintech, 19 healthcare/bio.

Only 5 are consumer companies. Only 3 are crypto/Web3, despite YC explicitly asking for startups in both areas.

The teams are tiny too. The median company has just 2 people, and 146 of the 208 have 3 people or fewer.

And YC is still very SF: 148 of the 208 companies are based there.