---
title: "The Fastest Growing Category of Venture Investment in 2024"
description: "AI startups raised $18.3B in Q1 2024, on pace for $55B annually. AI now commands 20%+ of all US venture dollars, up from 8% historically."
categories: ["fundraising"]
keywords: ["AI startups","venture capital","Theory Ventures","Tomasz Tunguz","investment trends","seed funding","US venture dollars","venture investment growth","ChatGPT impact","software companies with AI"]
ai_summary: "AI startups are leading US venture investment growth in 2024, commanding over 20% of total venture capital."
date: 2024-05-09
lastmod: 2026-07-23
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/ai-investment-2024/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

![image](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/pahaeiomvyu3dv2ftqu3.png)

The fastest growing category of US venture investment in 2024 is AI. Venture capitalists have invested $18.3 billion through the first four months of the year.

At this pace, we should expect AI startups to raise about $55b in 2024.

![image](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/ykrxuz9a41z6pgcpuvvm.png)

AI startups now command more than 20% share of all US venture dollars across categories, including healthcare, biotech, & software.

In the preceding eight years,  that number was about 8% per year.  But after the launch of ChatGPT in 2022,  there's a marked inflection point.

Some of this is new company formation, & there has been a significant amount of seed investment in this category.  Another major contributor is the [repositioning of existing companies](https://tomtunguz.com/every-company-will-be-an-ai-company/) to include AI within their pitch.

Over time, this share should attenuate, primarily because every software company will have an AI component, & the marketing effect for both customers & venture capitalists, will diffuse. 

![image](https://res.cloudinary.com/dzawgnnlr/image/upload/ayuqawotvereti8u79fu.png)

Not surprisingly, investors have concentrated total dollars in a few names, with the top  three companies accounting for 60% of the dollars raised. Power laws are ubiquitous in venture capital & AI is no exception.