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Artificial intelligence (AI) startups have raked in $11.8 billion over the last three months, accounting for 30% of all venture capital funding in Q3 2021. This remained steady from previous years, despite a 28% drop in the number of transactions since Q3 2020. Crunchbase investor data shows $53 billion pumped into AI this year, up 35% from last year. The total funding for the AI sector amounts to $241 billion, with US companies receiving 65%, and Asian and European startups obtaining $53 billion and $30.2 billion, respectively. AI and blockchain technology is a key investment focus for venture capitalists.

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Even with less venture capital funding going around these days, artificial intelligence (AI) startups have been raking in the cash. Stocklytics data shows that AI startups bagged a cool $11.8 billion over the last three months, making up about 30% of all venture capital funding in this year’s third quarter.

This is pretty amazing given that there’ve been some hurdles along the way, like tougher export rules on AI chips from the US and a few disappointment earnings reports from startups. It seems like investors are being cautious about where to put their money, but they’re definitely still keen on AI.

According to Neil Roarty from Stocklytics, this nearly $12 billion is right on par with the numbers from the same time period in the last couple of years, give or take the whopping $29.6 billion that was raised in the second quarter of this year.

But while the pile of cash has remained quite large, the number of deals has dropped. In fact, it’s slipped about 28% compared to last year’s third quarter, moving from 110 down to 79 transactions.

Despite that, Roarty says the bigger deals have kept folks feeling good about the sector. That said, there’s been an overall sluggishness in venture capital funding activity, with a decline of around 13% from last year.

Investor data from Crunchbase reveals a healthy $53 billion has been pumped into AI so far this year, which is 35% more than this time last year. One of the big deals that stands out is OpenAI’s latest $6.6 billion deal where they were valued at a massive $157 billion.

To give you a sense of the grand scale of things, the total funding amount for the AI sector is now a mind-boggling $241 billion, with US companies getting about 65% of that ($155 billion) on their hand. Asian AI startups have scored $53 billion and their European counterparts have secured $30.2 billion.

The key investment focus for venture capitalists right now? It’s a mash-up of AI and blockchain technology. In fact, Cosmo Jiang from Pantera Capital even said that he thinks the line between AI and Crypto will blur in a matter of years.

Investment firm VanEck jumped into the fund game on October 9, announcing a new venture fund dedicated to AI and crypto startups, with a tidy $30 million ready for those making their first shaky steps into the business world.

Source: Cointelegraph