AI startups raised $ 104 billion in the first half, leaving different stories

Openai and anthropic continues to go banance in artificial intelligence, raising historical rounds and stratospheric assessments.

But when it comes to searching for AI outputs for venture firms, the market looks much different.

In the first half of this year, AI startups raised $ 104.3 billion in the US, almost corresponding to $ 104.4 billion for 2024, PitchBook reports. Almost two -thirds of all US enterprises went to the II, which compared to 49% last year, Pitchbook said.

The biggest offers follow the familiar topic. Openai raised A record $ 40 billion in March in a round led by SoftBank. Meta poured 14.3 billion dollars Scale to In June, as part of the way to hire CEO Alexander Wang and several other best employees. Openai competitor Anthrop He raised $ 3.5 billion, while a safe criminal conviction, a startup, which started co -founder of Openai Ilya SutsKever, raised $ 2 billion.

While Meta’s mass investment scale AI was a profitable way out for early investors, the comprehensive trend was much more money than it was.

In the first half there was 281 exit from the LCD for a total amount of $ 36 billion, PitchBook reports. This includes approximately $ 700 million Acquisition EvolutioniqAI Platform on Disability Management and Injuries, CCC Intelligent Solutions and Public List Slide insurancewhich creates insurance offers for housing owners. The slide is estimated at about $ 2.3 billion.

“The dominant exit tendency is now common, but the acquisition with less cost and less IPO with much greater value,” said Dimitr Zabelin, Senior PitchBook Studies Ana and Cybersecurity.

Coreweave’s The IPO, which took place at the very end of the first quarter, was an exception on the infrastructure side. In the second quarter, the shares increased by 340%, and the company is estimated at more than $ 63 billion.

Zabelin noted that over the past year, an additional investment model has been operating in the application with smaller transactions.

“Vertical solutions are usually easier to connect to the existing gaps of the enterprise,” Zabelin said.

The wave of acquisitions is partly managed by what Zabelin calls Bolt-On when large companies buy smaller startups to improve their own estimates, hoping to increase their cost before the future sale or IPO.

“It is also due to the current liquidity conditions in the Macro -Eastern,” Zabelin said.

Outside II activity is slow. According to TRACXN, Fintech’s funding decreased by 42% in the first half of the year to $ 10.5 billion. Cloud software and crypto also saw sharp retreats.

Zabelin said the IPO activity could take if the economic conditions improve and when interest rates decrease. Investors clearly want the opportunities to return the prospective companies of AI, he said.

“The appetite for AI, in particular the vertical applications, will remain reliable,” said Zabelin.

– Kevin Schmidt in CNBC contributed to this report.

See: Stefan Feldgise Goldman Sachs on the M&A landscape