AI startups raised a record $97 billion in funding last year

PitchBook statistics cited by Bloomberg show that nearly half of the $209 billion in investments raised by U.S. startups last year was aimed at developing companies related to artificial intelligence. The corresponding amount reached a record $97 billion.

Image source: NVIDIA

If we talk about the total amount of funding for startups, it has increased by a third compared to 2023. At the same time, venture capitalists managed to attract $76.1 billion to 508 funds at the end of last year, which was the minimum amount since 2019, and in terms of the number of funds the figure was the minimum since 2014. This trend demonstrates that large companies are finding it easier to attract direct funding from investors, and large institutional investors are more actively raising funds. Record amounts are being spent on artificial intelligence, but young companies outside this sector no longer have enough money for development.

$149.2 billion was raised and spent in public offerings and startup acquisitions in the U.S. last year, up $30 billion from 2023 and nearly as much as was raised in 2022. In Europe, startup financing as a whole dropped from $66.7 billion to $61.6 billion by the end of 2024, and in Asia the volume of financing decreased from $100.1 to $75.9 billion. In this sense, the United States is characterized by a high degree of concentration of resources attracted for development artificial intelligence systems.