Investors matter for the future of trustworthy AI. Are they ready?

This blog post draws on insights from the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) Expert Group on Trustworthy AI Investment meeting which took place on 11 June 2026.

Every day, investors influence which artificial intelligence (AI) companies are funded, which technologies scale and which business models succeed. In 2025, 61% of all venture capital funding was directed towards AI, reflecting an extraordinary concentration of investment flowing into firms offering AI products and services.

Policymakers have spent years developing principles and frameworks for trustworthy AI. The OECD AI Principles, the first intergovernmental standard on AI adopted in 2019 and revised in 2024, provide a widely recognised framework for trustworthy AI. Yet investors still lack a common way to assess whether AI companies are living up to these standards and principles.

This creates a growing disconnect. Policymakers increasingly view trustworthy AI as essential for driving AI adoption, innovation and ultimately economic growth. Investors broadly agree. But when investment committees sit down to make decisions, they often lack the common language, data, tools, experience, and signals needed to translate trustworthiness, as reflected in the OECD AI Principles, into something they can evaluate and act on.

The good news is that this is changing. Across public markets, private equity and venture capital, investors are beginning to treat trustworthy AI not as a niche governance issue but as a material business factor. The challenge now is turning this initial interest into practical and standardised advice to help guide capital flows towards firms developing and deploying trustworthy AI.

Trust drives adoption. Adoption drives investment.