Heading into the holidays - let's spread a little positivity right?
And if there's been a single, solitary positive note from 2023 in startups, it has to be the AI boom.
This is the only "industry" (I'd probably say technological theme, but OK) that saw more capital invested in 2023 than in 2022.
So - where is that capital going?
Straight to Silicon Valley, it turns out. Nearly 50% of every dollar invested into an AI company this year on Carta went to a company in the Bay Area.
That's a much higher share than the 31% of all funding captured by the Bay.
A glance through the other metro areas shows that most fare worse on a relative share basis in AI than in venture funding overall (notable exception of New York pulling in 14% of AI funding and Pittsburgh breaking into the top ten).
For now, it seems as though AI investment is more centralized in core venture metros. Which may seem obvious given it's a new technology wave, but it does stand in sharp contrast to something like crypto which was much more…decentralized…sorry.
More industry-specific breakouts can be found at the bottom of all our normal quarterly reports (like this latest one from Q3).
Cheers to the AI founders making it happen!
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Peter Walker
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