The US remains the bedrock for the global AI revolution, with investments trickling in. According to Stocklytics.com, the US is seeing a surge in AI investments by over 50% in Q1’24. The ascent in inflows only hints at further AI developments for the country.

The site’s financial analyst, Edith Reads, comments:

The possible advancements attached to AI’s future are fueling immense investments from investors who want to be part of the new frontier. The US tech community is especially active, considering that Silicon Valley firms are aggressively expanding their AI developments.

Stocklytics financial analyst, Edith Reads

AI Investments In Q1’24 

Global investment in the AI sector experienced a substantial 24% quarter-over-quarter increase, culminating in a $13.1 billion funding figure—the highest seen since the beginning of last year. US AI funding contributed most to this figure, with a staggering $9.3 billion inflows. Asia came in trailing second with an inflow increase of 6% from the last quarter. Overall, AI investments surpassed venture funding, which settled with an 11% growth spurt. 

While the investments looked good, the AI deal landscape saw a downturn, with the deal count plummeting to 739, the lowest level since 2018. US AI startups held onto 389 deals at the end of the quarter, a notable slump from Q4’23 393. Of the established deals, 70% were still in their early stages, underscoring the slow trend in acquisitions and partnerships due to regulatory development. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley firms negotiated the most deals—172 in total. The firms also made most of the investments, amounting to $7.2 billion.

Apart from Silicon Valley, the top investors in the AI brawl were all committed to US startups, including Khosla Ventures, with a 12-company count, Andreessen Horowitz, 11, NVentures, 8, Sequoia Capital, 8, General Catalyst Lightspeed Venture Partners, 7, and  Samsung NEXt, 6.

Silicon Valley investments.

Silicon Valley firms have shown a strong attraction to the AI sector, particularly focusing on generative AI startups. This trend is highlighted by Amazon’s substantial $2.8 billion investment in Anthropic, the developer behind the Claude AI model, during Q1. Anthropic has also secured $750 million from Menlo Ventures.

Meta and Apple are also aggressively integrating Gen AI into their operations. Meta continues to expand its Llama development, benefiting Nvidia significantly as one of the largest consumers of its graphic processing units, boosting Nvidia’s revenue by over 250%. Meanwhile, Apple plans to unveil a suite of new AI features with the iOS 18 update in June.

Recently, Google joined this trend by investing in the generative AI startup Runway. As part of a $100 million funding round, Google raised the startup’s valuation to approximately $1.5 billion. This investment also established Google Cloud as Runway’s preferred provider.

However, the concentration of investments among a few major players raises concerns about the fair distribution of resources and opportunities for smaller startups in the AI landscape.