Amid AI Boom, U.S. Venture Capital Investment Hits 3-Year High

The U.S. venture capital (VC) market is expected to record its largest investment volume in three years in the first quarter of this year, driven by the rapid growth of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

However, there is a clear trend of capital being concentrated in a few large companies.

According to market research firm PitchBook, venture capital investment in startups surpassed $30 billion in the first quarter of this year. Additionally, with ongoing fundraising efforts by OpenAI, AI research firm Safe Superintelligence, and defense technology startup Anduril, an additional $50 billion in investments is expected to flow in.

Recently, fintech companies Stripe and Ramp held investment rounds, securing valuations of $91.5 billion and $13 billion, respectively. AI startups Anthropic and Shield AI were also valued at $61.5 billion and $5.3 billion, respectively.

Venture capital investment is showing a tendency to be concentrated in specific companies.

Kyle Stanford, a research director at PitchBook, noted, “In the fourth quarter of last year, 40% of venture capital investments went to just six companies, including OpenAI, xAI, and Databricks.” He analyzed that a few leading firms are dominating the market.

Indeed, OpenAI is in discussions to raise $40 billion in funding, leveraging a corporate valuation of $260 billion, in collaboration with Japan’s SoftBank and others.

Anduril has also more than doubled its valuation to over $30 billion since its last funding round last summer and plans to raise at least an additional $2 billion.

Hemant Taneja, CEO of major venture capital firm General Catalyst, stated, “AI is an innovative element that accelerates the growth of startups,” adding, “If an investment target has the potential to grow more than tenfold, it is considered a reasonable investment.”


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Amid AI Boom, U.S. Venture Capital Investment Hits 3-Year High