North America continues to receive AI venture dollars, despite some experts characterising it as an increasingly hostile environment towards AI R&D, according to data from the Investment Tracker Pitchbook.
Between February and May this year, VCS has poured $69.7 billion into North America-based AI and machine learning startups over 1,528 transactions. This compares to the $6.4 billion VC firms invested in European AI ventures over 742 transactions over the same period.
According to Pitchbook, the Asia-based startup is a little worse than its European counterparts. Between February and May, VCS invested just $3 billion in an AI startup based in Asia over 515 transactions.
Under President Donald Trump, the US has dramatically cut funding for science grants related to basic AI research, making it more difficult for foreign students specializing in AI to study in the US, and threatened to demolish university-resident AI labs by freezing billions of dollars in federal funds. Meanwhile, the administration’s trade policies, including retaliatory tariffs, have led to a chaotic market that is disadvantageous for dangerous new AI ventures.
In a March X post, AI pioneer and Nobel Prize winner Jeffrey Hinton called on billionaire Elon Musk, who advised him to be expelled from the Royal Society of the British Efficiency Department, Trump’s cost-cutting group until recently.
Promising to become a global leader in AI, Europe may hope to attract more venture capital in light of Trump’s controversial policies in the US. Additionally, the EU has committed hundreds of billions of euros to help develop AI within its member states, ranking many successful, funded AI startups (see Mistral, H, and Aleph Alpha).
However, the expected changes in global investment have not been realized. There are no signs of a massive VC escape into BLOCs or a significant increase in AI funding overseas. At least not so yet.
The same applies to China, which has produced well-known AI startups such as Deepseek and Butterfly Effect, behind the Agent Platform Manus, but VC activities in the country and the broader Asia region are relatively urgent. (Export controls that affect the ability of certain Asian countries to procure AI chips is almost certainly a factor.)
In 2024, North American startups secured 75.6% of all VC AI funds. That share has increased this year. So far, in 2025, North American AI investment represents 86.2% ($79.74 billion) of all AI VC funds worldwide.
Draws a somewhat surprising picture. Even amid increasing political and regulatory headwinds under Trump’s second term, the US remains an indisputable center of AI capital. That is, investors are still relying on US innovations to provide the biggest returns, at least for now, as they are exhausted by the administration’s unpredictability.
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