AI startups get 53 per cent from 2025 venture capital investment
AI startups get 53 per cent from 2025 venture capital investment
Publish Date: 2026-02-06 00:10:00
Source Domain: guardian.ng
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence (AI) dominated the venture capital landscape in 2025, cementing its position as the sector attracting the largest share of investor capital.
Data showed that from the $512.6 billion invested by venture capitalists (VC) last year, AI startups got $270 billion, which is about 52.7 per cent.
This was disclosed by BestBrokers, which analysed venture capital activity using data from PitchBook, CB Insights and LIQUiDITY.
The analysis examined quarterly deal activity, long-term investment trends, regional distributions and exit outcomes to provide a comprehensive recap of how AI investment evolved over the course of 2025 and how it compared with previous years.
While the total number of deals fell over the year, AI investment proved unusually resilient, with deal volumes holding steady even as broader venture activity slowed.
The pattern is clear as noted by the analysis, stressing that investors are writing fewer cheques overall, but a growing share is going to AI, signalling a decisive shift in focus towards companies with proven technology, strong growth potential and strategic importance in the evolving tech landscape.
While AI investment had been rising steadily in recent years, 2025 marked a decisive turning point: for the first time, funding into AI and machine learning startups accounted for the majority of global venture capital deal value, overtaking all other sectors combined. This pointed toward not only sustained interest in AI but a growing concentration of capital in a select few proven AI startups.
BestBrokers observed that following a period of aggressive investment throughout 2021-2022, venture capital firms have shifted into a more selective phase, focusing on startups with proven enterprise applications or those developing critical AI and cloud infrastructure.
This trend is reflected in a drop in deal volume but a surge in deal value, with investors concentrating on…
