In 2024, the financing amount of artificial intelligence startups reached an astonishing US$110 billion, a year-on-year increase of 62%, far exceeding the shrinking financing amount of the overall technology industry. Dealroom data shows that this booming trend is mainly due to the widespread influence of artificial intelligence technology in multiple fields such as hardware, infrastructure, applications and basic models. This article will conduct in-depth analysis of the current status, geographical distribution and future trends of investment in the field of artificial intelligence, and explore the reasons and potential challenges behind it.
According to latest data from analytics firm Dealroom, artificial intelligence (AI) startups raised $110 billion in 2024, an increase of 62% over last year. In contrast, the financing situation in the entire technology industry is not satisfactory, with the total financing of private equity-backed companies (including start-ups and growth companies) reaching US$227 billion, a 12% decrease from 2023.
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Dealroom founder Yoram Wijngaarde has decades of analytical and consulting experience in the technology industry. He pointed out that artificial intelligence has an unprecedented impact on investment, and there were almost no other areas that could be compared with it in the past. "This is the trend of the most absolute amount of investment in history, unprecedented," he said.
The reason for this surge is that artificial intelligence is affecting a wider ecosystem, covering multiple fields including hardware, infrastructure, applications, and basic models. Some of the largest AI financing cases in 2024, such as Anthropic (large language model, generative AI), Waymo (autonomous driving), Anduril (defense), xAI (applications), Databricks (data processing and management, especially AI data) and Vantage (data centers and infrastructure), etc., reflect the attractiveness of investment in different fields.
Although OpenAI is highly representative in the field of artificial intelligence, its financing amount is not the highest. Databricks topped the list with a $10 billion financing, while OpenAI ranked second with a $6.6 billion. Nevertheless, OpenAI is still the industry's weather vane with its over $20 billion in total financing and a popular app ChatGPT.
It is worth noting that the generative AI company received US$47.4 billion in investment in 2024, and the growth rate of basic AI technology exceeded the application field and became the largest financing cake.
According to Dealroom, 42% of venture capital (about $80.7 billion) goes to AI startups in the United States, while Europe accounts for only 25% (about $12.8 billion), and other regions account for 18%. China became a prominent country last year, with investment reaching US$7.6 billion.
“In Europe, we face the dilemma of some innovators,” Wijngaarde said. “We don’t want to replace what we already have, which makes our position likely to be more conservative.”
With the surge in financing for artificial intelligence startups, the cost of building and operating these services has also increased accordingly. For example, large language models require a large amount of computing infrastructure to build and run. Projects such as DeepSeek showcase alternatives that are comparable to OpenAI models at a lower cost ($50) and whether this will be further developed in the next year is unknown.
Key points:
- In 2024, artificial intelligence startups raised $110 billion in financing, a year-on-year increase of 62%.
- US AI startups account for 42% of financing, while Europe only accounts for 25%.
- Generative AI companies received $47.4 billion in investment in 2024, and basic AI technology has grown rapidly.
In short, the investment boom in the field of artificial intelligence continues to rise, with the United States dominating, and generative AI and basic AI technologies have become investment hotspots. However, high operating costs and regional development differences remain challenges that need to be paid attention to in the future. Whether this investment boom can continue and how it will eventually affect the pattern of the artificial intelligence industry is worthy of our continued attention.