Newly released data from PitchBook provides a striking illustration of the current transformation sweeping through the global startup investment landscape, highlighting the astonishing extent to which artificial intelligence has come to dominate venture capital flows. The firm’s latest analysis suggests that 2025 is poised to make history as the first calendar year in which investments tied to AI-related ventures are expected to represent more than half of all venture capital deployed worldwide. This milestone, if realized, would mark a profound shift not only in investor priorities but also in the underlying direction of technological innovation shaping the next decade.
According to figures cited by Bloomberg, PitchBook reports that venture capital firms have already allocated a remarkable $192.7 billion to AI and related industries so far this year, out of an overall $366.8 billion invested across all sectors. This means that, even before the year concludes, artificial intelligence has already established itself as the commanding force in the entrepreneurial funding ecosystem. The detailed data reveals that, in the most recent fiscal quarter, U.S.-based venture capital firms dedicated approximately 62.7 percent of their total investment capital to AI-driven startups. On a global scale, the figures tell a similar story: AI ventures accounted for 53.2 percent of all funding commitments made by venture capital organizations worldwide. These statistics not only underscore the scale of investor enthusiasm but also demonstrate that AI has moved far beyond being an emerging focus—it has become the defining center of gravity for modern venture finance.
Much of this unprecedented flow of capital is concentrating in a relatively small cluster of high-profile companies that have become emblematic of the AI surge. Among them, Anthropic—the pioneering developer of advanced language models—stands out as one of the marquee recipients of investor enthusiasm, having announced an extraordinary $13 billion Series F funding round in September. Such enormous transactions reflect the confidence that investors are placing in a handful of well-established firms, whose technological sophistication and market visibility make them natural magnets for capital seeking exposure to the AI boom.
Yet, in sharp contrast to these blockbuster success stories, the broader venture landscape appears to be contracting. The number of startups and investment funds successfully raising new rounds has fallen to its lowest level in years. PitchBook’s data reveals that only 823 venture funds have been raised globally in 2025 so far—a dramatic decline from the 4,430 funds launched in 2022. This extraordinary reduction highlights the growing concentration of investor dollars into fewer and more specialized entities, suggesting that capital is increasingly flowing toward the largest players operating within the AI domain rather than being distributed across a diverse array of sectors and early-stage experiments.
Kyle Sanford, PitchBook’s director of research, provided a succinct yet vivid characterization of the present environment in his comments to Bloomberg. He described the venture market as becoming increasingly “bifurcated”—a term that captures the emergence of a sharp divide within the investment community. In his view, firms now face a stark binary choice: either they are positioned within the AI ecosystem or they find themselves excluded from its momentum; similarly, they either belong to the category of large, well-capitalized institutions or they struggle to remain relevant within a funding environment dominated by a few colossal players. This division, Sanford suggests, encapsulates the defining challenge for contemporary startups: thriving in a financial world where artificial intelligence no longer represents one promising sector among many but has instead evolved into the central axis around which venture capital itself revolves.
Sourse: https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/04/if-youre-not-an-ai-startup-good-luck-raising-money-from-vcs/
