IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit)

The IA40 Summit 2026 is Madrona Venture Group's fifth annual Intelligent Applications Summit, held 29 and 30 September 2026 at the Four Seasons in Seattle. It is an invitation-only gathering for founders, researchers and operators building intelligent and generative applications and the infrastructure underneath them, and it is the event at which the Intelligent Applications Top 40 list is presented. That list is compiled from nominations and votes by investors across dozens of venture firms, then filtered through an outcome-prediction model Madrona runs with PitchBook, and past editions have been hosted in partnership with Microsoft, AWS, NYSE, Morgan Stanley, Delta Air Lines and McKinsey. The 2026 programme spans reasoning machines and enterprise AI adoption, infrastructure abstraction for modern models, the collaborative-reasoning full stack, reasoning agents and productivity tooling, AI development tools, and how data centres are evolving. Confirmed speakers include Microsoft, Atlassian, Axiom and Browserbase.

Date

September 29–30, 2026

Location

Four Seasons Hotel Seattle, Washington

Format

In-Person

Event Type

Summit

Status

Upcoming

Pricing

Invite-Only

Organizer

Madrona Venture Group

Added

Jun 24, 2026

Updated

Aug 16, 2026

• ✓AI startup founders and CEOs
• ✓CTOs and VPs of Engineering building AI applications
• ✓Heads of AI and applied research leaders
• ✓Venture capital investors focused on applied AI
• ✓Enterprise AI product and platform leaders
• ✓AI infrastructure and data centre executives

This is a two-day scouting trip rather than a training course, and its value is the room. An enterprise AI or corporate development leader gets direct access to the founders behind the Intelligent Applications Top 40 — the companies most likely to become their next vendor, partner or acquisition — plus the investors who underwrote them, before those names reach a Gartner grid. The programme's span from frontier models through infrastructure abstraction to data centre economics also gives a technology executive a defensible view of which layers of their AI stack are about to commoditise and which are worth building on.

• ✓Presentation of the annual Intelligent Applications Top 40 list, plus its rising-star selections
• ✓Sessions on reasoning machines and AI adoption in the enterprise
• ✓Sessions on infrastructure abstraction for modern models
• ✓Sessions on the collaborative-reasoning full stack
• ✓Sessions on reasoning agents and productivity tools
• ✓Sessions on AI development tools and applications
• ✓Sessions on how data centres are evolving for AI workloads
• ✓Keynotes, fireside chats and panels in an invitation-only format

• ★Home of the Intelligent Applications Top 40, an investor-voted list filtered through a Madrona/PitchBook outcome-prediction model — attending is how you see the shortlist before the press release
• ★Invitation-only and deliberately small, so the founder-to-investor and founder-to-buyer ratio is unlike any open-registration AI conference
• ★Organised by a venture firm rather than an events company, which is why the programme runs to unhedged technical and commercial specifics rather than vendor keynotes
• ★Past editions hosted in partnership with Microsoft, AWS, NYSE, Morgan Stanley, Delta Air Lines and McKinsey, so the buyer side of the room is as senior as the builder side
• ★Programme deliberately spans the whole stack in two days — frontier models, infrastructure abstraction, agents, developer tooling and data centres — rather than specialising
• ★Seattle timing and location put it in the middle of the Microsoft and AWS AI orbit, which shapes who is actually in the room

Invitation-only — no ticket tiers or prices are published. Attendance is by request through the invite form on the summit site, and Madrona confirms invitations directly.

When is IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit)?

IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit) takes place September 29–30, 2026 in Seattle, Washington.

Where is IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit) held?

IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit) is held in Seattle, Washington. The event format is in-person.

How much does IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit) cost?

IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit) is invite-only. Invitation-only — no ticket tiers or prices are published. Attendance is by request through the invite form on the summit site, and Madrona confirms invitations directly.

Who should attend IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit)?

IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit) is aimed at AI startup founders and CEOs, CTOs and VPs of Engineering building AI applications, Heads of AI and applied research leaders, Venture capital investors focused on applied AI, Enterprise AI product and platform leaders, AI infrastructure and data centre executives.

What topics does IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit) cover?

IA40 Summit 2026 (Intelligent Applications Summit) covers Reasoning models and enterprise AI adoption, Agentic systems and reasoning agents, AI infrastructure abstraction across model providers, The collaborative-reasoning application stack, AI developer tooling and productivity applications, Data centre evolution for AI workloads, Frontier model capability and where it lands commercially, Company-building and venture funding for intelligent applications.

This page was written from 3 sources, 1 on domains other than ia40.com.

1. 1.ia40.com — summitvendor
2. 2.ia40.com — ia40.comvendor
3. 3.dropzone.ai — dropzone ai named to the 4th annual intelligent applications