Global Venture Capital Pulled Into 'AI Black Hole,' 52% of Funding Concentrated in AI

Last year, about 52% of global Venture Capital (VC) investment was concentrated in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector. Most of that capital went to U.S. companies, and OpenAI raised the largest amount of funding.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun (The Nikkei) reported on the 22nd, citing data from PitchBook, that global VC investment reached 511.3 billion dollars last year, up 30% from a year earlier. This was the highest level in three years, since 527.3 billion dollars in 2022.
A sharp increase in investment in the AI sector drove the overall rise in VC funding.
Investment in AI-related companies totaled 267.9 billion dollars, an 80% jump from the previous year. AI accounted for 52% of all VC investment, surpassing the halfway mark for the first time. The share of AI in total VC funding has risen steadily, from 23% in 2022 to 28% in 2023 and 38% in 2024.
OpenAI was the single largest fundraiser. In March last year, it agreed to receive investment from SoftBank Group Corp. (SBG)’s SoftBank Vision Fund and others, securing 41 billion dollars. At the time, SBG drew attention by raising funds through the sale of its holdings in Nvidia Corporation.
Based on recent secondary share sales, OpenAI is valued at around 500 billion dollars. If it proceeds with an Initial Public Offering (IPO), it is expected to generate enormous returns for its investors.
The second-largest fundraiser was U.S.-based AI developer Anthropic PBC, which raised 15 billion dollars in November last year.
As the AI market expands, capital is also flowing into related businesses.
Anduril Industries, a U.S. defense software company built around AI, raised 2.5 billion dollars last year. Founders Fund, led by prominent tech investor Peter Thiel, spearheaded the deal.
By country and region, the United States accounted for 80% of global AI investment.
AI-related fundraising in the United States reached 218.7 billion dollars last year, double the level of the previous year. U.S. companies accounted for 23 of the top 25 deals by single-round size, underscoring the extreme concentration of capital.
In Europe, AI investment rose 40% year-on-year to 26.9 billion dollars, with companies from France leading the way.
In Japan, AI startup investment totaled 1.7 billion dollars, up 11% from a year earlier, but still accounted for less than 1% of the global total.
One VC industry source pointed out, "There are too few AI startups that are truly investable, so we have not been able to fully ride the AI boom."
Nikkei projected that capital inflows into the AI industry are likely to continue this year as well.
In the market, there is growing speculation that OpenAI, Anthropic PBC and others will pursue an IPO. If they do go public, the capital VCs recoup from those exits is expected to be recycled into new investments.
By contrast, startups outside the AI sector are facing a harsh funding environment.
Global fundraising for non-AI sectors edged up only slightly to 243.3 billion dollars, and is down about 40% compared with three years ago.
Cloud-based software, once seen as a high-growth area, now faces the risk of being displaced by task automation powered by generative AI. Shares of cloud companies such as Salesforce have been weak, which in turn is weighing on valuations of unlisted peers in the same space.

sjmary@fnnews.com Seo Hye-jin Reporter