Global venture capital focused on AI… In April, among $56 billion, 66% was for AI.

Last April, global venture capital investment reached $56 billion, the third-highest monthly level in nearly a year. According to Crunchbase statistics, this figure increased by 100% compared with $26 billion in the same period last year. Converted into Korean won, it was approximately 82.572 trillion KRW.

This surge was driven by mega-scale artificial intelligence investment rounds. AI research company Anthropic received $15 billion, and the AI manufacturing project “Prometheus Project,” promoted by Jeff Bezos, secured $10 billion. Just these two companies attracted $25 billion in total, accounting for about 45% of the venture capital raised in April.

AI investment concentration is intensifying… Large deals keep coming

Companies outside of AI also appeared among those that received more than $100 million. Swedish eco-friendly steel company Stegra, Vast Data, an AI data operations firm based in New York, and Ineferable Intelligence, a London AI research institute founded by former DeepMind members, are representative examples.

Examples of investments exceeding $500 million are also continuing. These include Slate Auto, an electric pickup truck company in Michigan, True Anomaly, a space defense company in Colorado, TARS, a humanoid robot startup in Shanghai, Recursive Superintelligence, a cutting-edge AI research institute in London, and Everi, a global payments platform. Everi is a company majority-owned by Santander Bank.

AI investments total only $37 billion… the U.S. accounts for 70%

According to statistics, in April alone, investments in the AI sector totaled $37 billion. This is equivalent to 66% of global total venture capital. In Korean won, it is approximately 54.5565 trillion KRW. It can be said that the center of the venture capital market has completely shifted to AI.

Looking at the breakdown, AI model development companies attracted $26.7 billion, the largest share. The “physical AI” field—which includes robotics, aerospace, drones, and autonomous vehicles—attracted about $5.3 billion. AI infrastructure areas such as semiconductors and data centers recorded $1.8 billion.

From the perspective of countries, the U.S.’s leading position is clear. U.S. companies attracted $39 billion, or about 70% of global venture capital funding.

Both public and private markets are centered on AI

The trend of AI centralization that began in the first quarter of this year continued into April. In the public markets, major tech companies such as Alphabet ($GOOGL), Microsoft ($MSFT), and Amazon ($AMZN) posted sales that exceeded market expectations, while also actively expanding investments in AI infrastructure.

Oliver Allen, an economist at Pansian Macroeconomics, estimates that in the U.S., about half of the 2% GDP growth in the first quarter came from the expansion of AI devices. This has been interpreted as large tech companies’ capital expenditures even affecting macroeconomic indicators.

The private market shows the same trend. According to Crunchbase, as of April this year, global venture capital increased by 139% compared with the same period last year. However, about 60% of the overall funding is concentrated in just a small group of 5 companies. This results from cash-rich listed tech companies, private equity funds, and large venture capital firms concentrating investments in specific AI companies.

Although investment is showing signs of recovery, “concentration among a few” creates pressure

This analysis shows that the venture capital market is rebounding, but it also reveals that capital concentration is further intensifying. Rather than early-stage startups as a whole feeling the “warmth,” it is mega-scale transactions centered on AI that are pulling the entire market forward.

Crunchbase explains that the data reflects the investment details reported up to May 4. It also adds that there is a significant reporting time lag for seed-round investments, and the amounts may increase further later on.

Ultimately, the core keywords for the global venture capital market in April can be summarized as “artificial intelligence” and “concentration.” While the investment scale itself is strong, whether this represents healthy expansion of the market or overheating in specific areas remains to be further observed.

TP AI Notice: This article was summarized using a language model based on TokenPost.ai. The main content of the body text may be omitted or may not be consistent with facts.