AI Startups Dominate Global Venture Capital, Securing 53% of 2025 Investments

Artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as the top attraction for global investors in 2025, capturing a record share of venture capital funding. Out of $512.6 billion invested worldwide, AI startups secured $270 billion—equivalent to 52.7% of total venture capital investments. This milestone underscores the growing confidence of investors in AI’s transformative potential and its critical role in the future of technology.

According to an analysis by BestBrokers, which compiled data from PitchBook, CB Insights, and LIQUiDITY, AI investment has proven unusually resilient even as the total number of venture deals declined last year. While investors wrote fewer cheques overall, they increasingly concentrated funding on startups demonstrating strong growth potential, proven technology, and strategic importance, reflecting a decisive shift in venture capital priorities.

The year 2025 marked a turning point for AI and machine learning, with the sector overtaking all others combined in global deal value for the first time. This concentration of funding is evident in major rounds such as OpenAI’s $40 billion raise led by SoftBank and ICONIQ Capital’s $13 billion investment in Anthropic. Many heavily funded startups, including Thinking Machines Lab and Safe Superintelligence, were founded by former OpenAI employees, highlighting a clustering of AI expertise in elite startups.

BestBrokers notes that while the number of deals has decreased since the aggressive investment phase of 2021–2022, the total value of investments continues to rise sharply. Investors are focusing on AI startups with established enterprise applications or those developing critical AI and cloud infrastructure, reflecting a strategic preference for reliability and growth potential over speculative ventures.

This upward trajectory is part of a broader trend: AI’s share of global venture capital has steadily increased from 23% in 2022 to 27.5% in 2023, 40% in 2024, and now over 52% in 2025. With more than half of all venture capital funding now directed toward AI, the sector is set to dominate technological innovation for years to come, reinforcing its position at the forefront of the global investment landscape.

source: The Guardian