AI, investments return to 2022 record levels

Investments in artificial intelligence returned to growth in numbers and in the third quarter of this year hit a record high since the peak in Q1 2022. Transactions rose by 24% to 1,245 globally. This is an interesting sign in a landscape where the general trend in the venture capital market is a decline in deals and deal sizes. The reading is different if one looks at the total amount of deals, which stopped at USD 16.8 billion, down 29% compared to USD 23.6 billion in the previous quarter, due to a 77% decrease in investment rounds over USD 1 billion, according to Cb Insights' 'State of AI' report.

Investimenti in AI

Fonte: CB Insights

From the beginning of the year to the end of September, the report counts 3,144 investments totalling USD 55.4 billion. A figure that makes experts estimate that the whole of 2024 could exceed last year's levels, when 4,058 were registered for USD 54.2 billion. In addition, the average deal size in the artificial intelligence sector in 2024 stands at $23.5 million, marking a 28% increase over the $18.4 million recorded for the whole of 2023. A trend driven by an increase in mega-rounds of more than $1bn especially during the second quarter. AI startups closed nine mega-rounds during 2024, up from four in the full year of 2023, including rounds from xAI ($5bn), Anthropic ($4bn), Anduril ($1.5bn), G42 ($1.5bn) and CoreWeave ($1.1bn).

Chi investe in AI?

Fonte: CB Insights

The AI sector in the near future will require more and more investments, according to Guillaume Chieusse, manager of Oddo BHF Active Small Cap: 'The global AI data centre market could reach 50-60 GW within 5 years, while traditional data centres could grow incrementally by 15-20 GW over the same period. With a total cost of $50 million/MW (including land, construction, power supplies, hardware and connectivity), the total market opportunity for AI data centres could reach $2.5-3.0 trillion'. Numbers that make it clear that much larger sums will be needed to support the future development of an industry with such a global impact. Also because there are a whole series of ancillary companies that will have to follow the development of AI companies.

"The data centre boom is also driving growth in other sectors. Firstly, liquid cooling is gaining in popularity compared to air cooling, with a growth of about 46 per cent compared to about 13 per cent for air cooling. It has been shown that liquid cooling is more energy efficient than air cooling, and could lead to efficiency savings of around 25-30%. Investment in cooling is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 18% until 2028. Secondly, data centre energy consumption has been growing at about 17% per year and, according to McKinsey, is expected to continue growing at about 13% per year in Europe. Finally, data centres are also stimulating infrastructure growth, as the security requirements for data centre buildings are high,' Chieusse further emphasises.

Returning to the AI companies, the new rounds also marked new and higher valuations with the birth of new unicorns, i.e. companies that are recognised as being worth over a billion. During the third quarter of 2024, 13 new AI unicorns were born, bringing the total number internationally to 230. This figure has more than doubled in the three months to September compared to the previous quarter, representing 54% of the total number of new unicorn companies born across all sectors during the period. These are predominantly companies in the generative artificial intelligence sector, with applications ranging from AI for 3D environments (World Labs), code generation (Codeium), to legal workflow automation (Harvey).