Private AI Investments Soar Despite Modest Sales

New data from Crunchbase reveals that artificial-intelligence start-ups have dominated fundraising rounds in 2025. (I-Hwa Cheng / AFP/Getty Images)

Key Points

• Artificial-intelligence startups secured close to 50% of the approximately $405 billion in private funding in 2025.
• Nvidia has invested about $50 billion across 63 companies, leading corporate and private-equity funding in AI.
• In 2025, 58% of AI funding rounds were for $500 million or more, an increase from 33% in 2023.

New data from Crunchbase reveals that artificial-intelligence start-ups have dominated fundraising rounds in 2025. Close to 50% of the roughly $405 billion in private funding so far this year has gone to AI, bringing total AI funding to about $316 billion since the start of 2024.

Almost $70 billion of 2024 and 2025 AI funding has gone to just two companies: OpenAI and Anthropic.

The last two years saw corporate and private-equity investments beginning to displace venture-capital firms as the primary source of funding. Nvidia has led the charge among corporations, with about $50 billion in private investments spread across 63 companies, according to FactSet.

CEO Jensen Huang appears to be using the company’s substantial cash flows from the AI boom—of which Nvidia is a primary beneficiary—to make broad investments across the AI landscape.

Funding rounds are also getting larger, inflating valuations. In 2025, 58% of AI funding rounds were for $500 million or more compared with 33% in 2023.

This rush of private capital is set against the backdrop of still-slow uptake of AI tools in the enterprise. Venture-capital firm Menlo Ventures estimated that enterprise budgets for AI applications totaled just $19 billion in 2025, though that figure is about three times the level in 2024.

Write to Adam Levine at adam.levine@barrons.com