AI Startups Dominate North American VC with 70% Share, Signaling Explosive and Risky Growth

 By Farhan Ali • June 23, 2025

Venture capital in North America is officially in AI mania mode.

According to recent data from The Financial Times, over 70% of all VC capital deployed in H1 2025 has gone to AI-related startups—spanning foundation model labs, agentic platforms, biotech AI, and enterprise LLM integrations.

The Numbers

• 454 AI startups funded between January and June 2025
  
• Median valuation for early-stage AI companies: $47M
  
• Over $36 billion invested in AI globally in Q2 alone
  
• ~35% of funded companies are pre-product or pre-revenue
  

(Source: FT Tech Report)

Top Sub-Sectors Funded

• Agentic AI and co-pilots
  
• Model efficiency & inference optimization
  
• Synthetic data generation
  
• Robotics and automation
  
• Healthcare AI and drug discovery
  

Investor Commentary

“We’re seeing 1999 energy but with 10x the compute budget,” said a general partner at Sequoia. “Not all of it will survive, but the platforms that do could be category-defining.”

Final Thoughts

Whether it’s a gold rush or a bubble, one thing is clear: VCs are betting the future will be built on artificial intelligence—ready or not.

Sources:

• Financial Times – AI VC Tracker
  
• Crunchbase – AI Deal Flow 2025
  
• CB Insights – AI Market Maps
  
• Sequoia Capital – Portfolio Commentary Q2 2025