AI was the leading startup funding sector worldwide between 2023 and 2025. Each year, the funding amounts for this sector have increased dramatically and the proportions have increased.
End of 2025, OpenAI is the most valuable private company of all time, valued at $500 billion. Not far from the list is his rival Anthropicthe fourth with 183 billion dollars. Together, these two companies alone represent almost 10% of the value of the The Unicorn Crunchbase board.
As AI reshapes the venture capital industry, here are six charts to visualize the transformation via Crunchbase data.
AI funding increases in 2025
AI captured nearly 50% of all global funding in 2025, up from 34% in 2024, according to Crunchbase data. So far, a total of $202.3 billion has been invested in the AI sector in 2025, which includes the entire stack: AI infrastructure, core labs, and applications.
In total, AI funding increased by more than 75% year-over-year from the $114 billion invested in 2024.
Foundation laboratories reap a larger share
Foundation model companies have raised $80 billion to date in 2025, representing 40% of global AI funding, according to Crunchbase data. This year, funding for model companies more than doubled from $31 billion in 2024, when this investment made up about 27% of all AI funding.
The two largest foundations, OpenAI and Anthropic, alone captured 14% of global venture capital investment this year.
A trend to watch in 2026: Will leading model developers continue to raise tens of billions via equity investments to meet their voracious appetite for computing in 2026, or will partnerships close this gap?
Hyperscalers have committed an amount estimated at more than $300 billion in investments in 2025 and increased this investment commitment for 2026.
The United States sets the bar high
The United States dominates AI funding. A total of $159 billion – or 79% of funding – for the sector was awarded to US-based companies in 2025. The San Francisco Bay Area alone raised $122 billion of that sum, or more than three-quarters of AI funding in the US.
For single investors, PE dominates
A list of corporate investors – Meta, EspaceX, Nvidia, Intercontinental exchange, ASML, The Walt Disney Company. And Google – have led billion-dollar fundraising rounds in AI companies this year, according to Crunchbase data.
Meta notably led an investment of $14.3 billion in Evolving AIwith around ten key team members leaving the startup to join Meta, including the CEO Alexander Wang.
However, despite being responsible for the most billion-dollar AI funding deals this year, it was not this category of professional investors that dominated the largest amounts in AI-related companies in 2025.
On the contrary, private equity and alternative investors have dominated, with SoftBank leading the biggest deal in 2025 with its $40 billion investment in OpenAI. PE-led deals with a single lead investor for rounds of $1 million or more in 2025 totaled $63 billion across approximately 300 rounds.
In contrast, venture capital firms conducted deals totaling $38 billion with a single lead investor in 1,600 financings of $1 million or more. Although venture capital led fewer billion-dollar fundraising rounds, it was the most active, driving force in this asset class, leading 75% of the deals analyzed.
The three VCs that will lead billion-dollar AI deals in 2025 were Lightspeed Venture Partners, Founders Fund And Andreessen Horowitz.
The large circles are concentrated at the top
The bulk of the largest startup fundraising rounds in 2025 were invested in AI-related companies. In AI, 58% of funding was in the range of $500 million or more.
According to Menlo Ventures‘ recently published Generative AI Reportenterprise AI revenue reached $37 billion in 2025, a more than 3x year-over-year increase with $19 billion in user-facing products and $18 billion in AI infrastructure.
Global venture capital increased in 2025 after a slower funding year in 2024 and 2023. Our data illustrates how AI dominated the venture capital landscape in 2025, with capital concentrated in the largest startups.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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