Venture funding today is way down from the record heights reached three years ago. But the comparison would be far starker, of course, were it not for artificial intelligence.

So far this year, 35% of U.S. startup investment has gone to AI-related companies, per Crunchbase data. That appears to be the highest percentage on record, besting even 2023, when OpenAI secured its $10 billion Microsoft-backed financing.

For perspective, we charted out the share of funding going to artificial intelligence companies for the past five years below:

Biggest 2024 rounds for AI companies

Much of the high funding total for AI-related companies comes from a few ultra-large rounds. So far in 2024, five such companies have raised rounds of $1 billion or more, led by the $6 billion May Series B for xAI.

Not all are pure AI plays

Notably, the large share of funding going to the AI category includes companies with varying degrees of focus on the technology.

Very broadly, we can divide startups in the sector into those that use AI in a particular industry or use case versus those developing core underlying technologies.

The core technology category includes generative AI heavyweights like OpenAI and Anthropic, which are developing foundational technology. Other companies, in turn, may use their AI models for use cases across myriad industries.

The second category contains more startups but commonly not the most heavily funded ones. Some of the larger 2024 investment recipients in this vein include Abnormal Security, focused on email security, Flyr, which is working on automated decision-making for the airline and travel industries, and healthcare startup Abridge, which applies AI to clinical documentation.

We’ll stay tuned in coming quarters to see if AI’s share of funding remains at elevated levels and whether the mix of investment recipients has changed.

Related Crunchbase Pro list:

• US Funding To Non-AI Startups

Related reading:

• Microsoft Agrees To Multibillion-Dollar Deal With OpenAI

Illustration: Dom Guzman