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AI, venture capital investments of $160 billion by 2025

The average deal value rose 86 per cent from last year to USD 49.3 million

by Monica D'Ascenzo

4 November 2025

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Average deal size increases
High multiples
M&A's vitality

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Anthropic with its $13bn round and OpenAi with its $8.3bn one certainly made the world's artificial intelligence investment market alone in the third quarter of the year, but it is also true that there were another handful of deals above the billion mark that kept investment levels high: Mistral AI with $1.5bn, Nscale with $1.1bn, Databricks and Figure with $1bn each.

Top deal del terzo trimestre

Fonte CB Insights

On the other hand, 2025 had started under a lucky star for the venture capital industry involved in AI investments, with a first quarter with 1,516 deals and over 60 billion raised; this was followed by a second quarter of resilience, albeit weaker than the previous three months with 1.the quarter ended in September saw 1,295 deals globally (-22% compared to the previous quarter), but with significant amounts, exceeding USD 45 billion for the fourth consecutive quarter, according to data from CB Insights' "State of AI" report.

Gli investimenti in AI

Dati a livello globale

Fonte CB Insights

Overall, therefore, the first nine months of this year reached 4,480 deals for a total global amount of USD 158.9 billion, which compares with 5,725 deals in the whole of 2024 for a total value of USD 108 billion. This figure was already far exceeded at the end of September.

Confronto con gli anni precedenti

Fonte CB Insights

Geographically, the lion's share is still the US, with 50% of deals in the third quarter. This percentage is, however, down from 54% in the previous two quarters. Asia and Europe followed at a distance with 23% and 22% respectively.

La mappa degli investimenti in AI

Fonte CB Insights

Average deal size is growing

The average deal size in 2025 continues to grow: the average since the beginning of the year has reached $49.3m, a leap of 86% since 2024. "Investors are focusing their bets on a shrinking number of players, looking for the future winners in artificial intelligence in an environment marked by high infrastructure costs and fierce competition in model development," observe CB Insights.

Dimensioni medie dei deal

Fonte CB Insights

High multiples

Lean' artificial intelligence teams (i.e. companies with a small number of employees) are achieving extraordinary valuations. Emblematic is the case of Figure, a company active in humanoid robotics, which set a record with a valuation of USD 39 billion, or USD 104.3 million per employee. "These valuations at high multiples reflect investor confidence, but the real test will be to see whether these start-ups can achieve the ambitious revenue targets set for the coming years," the analysts note.

M&A

Vivour of M&A

The trend in extraordinary transactions was also positive: M&A activity in the artificial intelligence sector remained close to all-time highs, with 172 transactions in Q3 2025, close to the 181 recorded in the previous quarter. "Of note, three of the five largest acquisitions in the quarter involved companies specialising in AI agents. Traditional enterprise software players are pursuing an aggressive acquisition campaign to accelerate the integration of artificial intelligence into their product roadmaps," the report reads.

Monica D’Ascenzoredattrice
Luogo: Milano
Lingue parlate: Italiano, inglese
Argomenti: Finanza, startup, diversity
Premi: Premio dell'Associazione per lo Sviluppo economico per il libro "Donne sull'orlo della crisi economica"
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