The AI Bubble Has Officially Burst: Billions Being Flushed Down the Drain
It’s official. The AI bubble has popped, and investors are now scrambling to get their hands on a piece of the action. A staggering $35.5 billion has been invested in AI startups in the first half of 2024 alone, with five of the six venture rounds of over $1 billion raised by AI companies.
But it’s not just the mega-rounds that are driving the madness. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being poured into AI startups every month, with some companies raising funding rounds in the tens of millions of dollars.
So, who’s behind this AI bonanza? The usual suspects: venture capitalists, private equity firms, and even big tech companies like Nvidia and Microsoft.
But is it really a good idea to be pouring so much money into AI startups? Let’s take a closer look at some of the companies that have raised funding in the first half of 2024:
January:
- Kore.ai, a conversational AI startup, raised $150 million in a Series D round.
February:
- Glean, an AI-driven enterprise search startup, raised $203 million in a Series D round.
- Figure, an AI robotics startup, raised $675 million in a Series B round.
- Abridge, a medical AI transcription startup, raised $150 million in a Series C round.
- Recogni, a generative AI chip designer, raised $102 million in a Series C round.
March:
- Celestial AI, an optical interconnect technology platform, raised $175 million in a Series C round.
- FundGuard, an AI-powered investment accounting operating system, raised $100 million in a Series C round.
- Together AI, an open source generative AI platform, raised $106 million in a Series A round.
- Zephyr AI, a precision medicine AI startup, raised $111 million in a Series A round.
April:
- Blaize, an AI computing platform company, raised $106 million in a Series D round.
- Augment, an AI coding assistance startup, raised $227 million in a Series B round.
- Cognition, an applied AI lab startup, raised $175 million in a Series A round.
- Xaira Therapeutics, an AI drug discovery startup, raised $1 billion in a Series A round.
May:
- xAI, an AI platform for scientific discovery, raised $6 billion in a Series B round.
- Scale AI, a data-labeling services startup, raised $1 billion in a Series F round.
- Suno, an AI music creation platform, raised $125 million in a Series B round.
- Weka, an AI-native data platform, raised $140 million in a Series E round.
- CoreWeave, a GPU infrastructure provider, raised $1.1 billion in a Series C round.
June:
- AlphaSense, a market intelligence platform, raised $650 million in a Series F round.
- EvolutionaryScale, a biological AI models startup, raised $142 million in a seed round.
- Etched.ai, a chip designer for AI models, raised $120 million in a Series A round.
- Bright Machines, a smart robotics and AI software startup, raised $106 million in a Series C round.
- Hebbia, a generative AI startup, raised $130 million in a Series A round.
July:
- Skild AI, a robotics tech startup, raised $300 million in a Series A round.
- AKASA, a healthcare revenue cycle automation platform, raised $120 million in a Series B round.
As you can see, the money is pouring in, and AI startups are raising massive funding rounds left and right. But is this sustainable? Can these companies really live up to the hype and deliver on their promises?
Only time will tell. But for now, the AI bubble shows no signs of bursting.
