Despite high interest rates, economic slowdown, stricter regulations on big tech and AI, Trumpโs tariff policies, and global trade tensions, AI continues to outperform nearly every other area of the tech sector, both in market forecast and VC investments.
In Q1, AI startups made nearly 58% of global VC investments, doubling their share year-over-year and reflecting growing investor enthusiasm.
That momentum carried into Q2, putting 2025 on track to become a record-breaking year for AI funding. According to data presented by Stocklytics.com, AI startups have raised a whopping $32.9 billion in funding rounds over the past five months.
Five-month funding nearly matches full-year totals from 2022 and 2023
AI startups are on track for another record year, driven by strong early investment and major funding deals.
Big deals, like Elon Muskโs xAI aiming for $10 billion and Figure AI seeking $1.5 billion, have sparked investor interest and put more pressure on startups to build real-world AI solutions. This perfect storm of events has led to the strongest start to a year the AI startup sector has ever seen.
The Crunchbase data show AI startups raised $22.3 billion in Q1, nearly double the amount raised in the same period a year ago and the second-highest quarterly figure on record, trailing only the $35.7 billion raised in Q4 2024. But the strong momentum continued in Q2, with VC investors pouring another $10.6 billion into the market, pushing the year-to-date total to a whopping $32.9 billion.
To put this figure into perspective, it took less than five months for AI startups to raise nearly the entire value VC investors poured into this market throughout 2022 and 2023. Even if VC investments slow down, the current trend shows 2025 could still set a new record, outperforming 2024, the best year for AI startup funding so far.
AI startups top all other sectors in VC investment
Comparing AI startup funding to other most-funded sectors in 2025 shows just how strong this trend is. In comparison, AI startups have raised 2.5 times more money than fintech startups ($12.7 billion), 44% more than IT startups ($6.4 billion), and around three times more than biotech companies ($11 billion) or fintech startups ($12 billion). Crypto and cybersecurity startups trail even more behind, with $2 billion and $4.2 billion raised year-to-date, respectively.
With $32.9 billion of fresh capital poured into the market over the past five months, the total funding amount in the AI startup sector has jumped over $310 billion. Nearly 80% of that value, or $244 billion, was raised in the past five years.
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