Global venture investors poured $45 billion into AI firms in the third quarter of 2025, led by massive rounds for Anthropic, xAI and Mistral AI, according to new data from Crunchbase.
In a new report, Crunchbase says AI venture investments represent about 46% of all venture capital deployed worldwide last quarter, marking a blockbuster period in which AI captured nearly half of global startup funding.
Total venture investment reached $97 billion, up 38% year-over-year from $70 billion in Q3 2024.
It was the fourth consecutive quarter with global startup funding above $90 billion—levels not seen since 2022. Crunchbase says startup investment has now posted year-over-year gains for the past four quarters, driven by “megarounds of $500 million or more, largely to AI-related companies.”
The report shows capital concentrating into fewer, larger deals.
“The three largest venture rounds in Q3 2025 were raised by foundation model companies Anthropic ($13 billion), xAI ($5.3 billion) and Mistral AI ($2 billion).”
Crunchbase says those three accounted for nearly one-third of AI’s total quarterly funding, underscoring how money is clustering around a few model developers.
“All in all, a third of all venture investment in Q3 went to just 18 companies that raised funding rounds of $500 million or more each.”
The trend, Crunchbase notes, is well above historical norms prior to late 2024.
Hardware ranked as the second-largest sector with $16.2 billion in rounds from robotics, semiconductor, quantum and data-infrastructure firms. Healthcare and biotech followed at $15.8 billion, while financial services attracted $12 billion in new capital.
Late-stage investment surged 66% year-over-year to $58 billion, helped by the OpenAI mega-round earlier in the year. Early-stage and seed funding also ticked higher, reaching $30 billion and $9 billion, respectively, across thousands of companies.
The quarter confirms that AI remains the engine of global venture capital momentum — commanding nearly half of every VC dollar deployed worldwide as founders and investors race to own the infrastructure of intelligence.
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