AI start-ups in US raised over $100B in 6 months
What's the story
Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-ups in the US raised an impressive $104.3 billion in the first half of this year, according to PitchBook. The figure is nearly equal to the total funding of $104.4 billion for all of 2024. Nearly two-thirds of all US venture funding went to AI, a significant jump from last year's share of 49%.
Funding giants
Major funding rounds in H1 2025
The first half of this year saw some major funding rounds. OpenAI, for instance, raised a record $40 billion in March from SoftBank. In June, Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI to hire its CEO Alexandr Wang and other top executives. Other notable fundraisers include Anthropic with $3.5 billion and Safe Superintelligence (founded by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever) with $2 billion.
Exit trends
Venture capitalists recorded 281 exits in H1 2025
Despite the massive inflow of funds, the exit scenario for venture capitalists looks different. In H1 2025, there were 281 VC-backed exits worth a total of $36 billion. This includes the acquisition of EvolutionIQ by CCC Intelligent Solutions for about $700 million and Slide Insurance's public listing at a valuation of around $2.3 billion.
Market dynamics
Current exit trend
Dimitri Zabelin, PitchBook's senior research analyst for AI and cybersecurity, noted the current exit trend is characterized by frequent but lower-value acquisitions and fewer IPOs with significantly higher value. He also observed a pattern of more investments in applications with smaller deals over the past year. This trend is partly driven by "bolt-on deals" where larger companies acquire smaller start-ups to boost their own future valuations ahead of a potential sale or IPO.
Market influence
Investors remain keen on backing promising AI companies
Zabelin also noted that the current liquidity conditions in the macro environment are affecting these trends. Outside of AI, other sectors such as fintech, cloud software, and cryptocurrency have seen a decline in funding activity. However, Zabelin believes IPO activity could pick up if economic conditions improve and interest rates come down. He reiterated that investors remain keen on backing promising AI companies despite these challenges.