In the first quarter of 2026, investors deployed $300 billion into 6,000 startups, up 150% from previous years. Only a single-digit sliver of that capital is directed toward AI applications focused on solving social and environmental challenges. That gap is not an accident. It reinforces who AI is being built for, and who it’s leaving out. And that failure is costing us some of the best and most-needed solutions being built outside of Menlo Park. Here is what I mean. When Temie Giwa-Tubosun started LifeBank in Nigeria, hospitals were running out of blood. She couldn’t build for ideal conditions because ideal conditions didn’t exist. Every assumption had to survive contact with reality: inconsistent power, fragmented logistics, traffic jams of mythical proportions, and hospitals that couldn’t afford to wait.…