Three providers do not agree on AI's share of venture money

The record

Three venture data providers each state that AI took an unusually large share of 2024 investment dollars, and each states a different number for it. Crunchbase's year-end 2024 recap, published 7 January 2025, put AI funding at "over $100 billion," up more than 80% year over year, "close to a third of all global venture funding." CB Insights' State of Venture 2024 Report, published the same week, states that AI took "37% of venture funding and 17% of deals — both all-time highs" for the year. PitchBook's Q4 2024 US First Look, published 6 January 2025, states that "nearly 30% of completed US investments were made into AI companies in 2024."

What the sources establish

Read carefully, these are not three measurements of the same thing. Crunchbase's "close to a third" and CB Insights' 37% both describe a share of venture dollars, globally, but on different underlying totals and inclusion rules for what counts as an AI company. PitchBook's "nearly 30%" describes a share of completed investment count, in the United States only, not dollars; a small number of very large AI rounds can push a dollar share well above a deal-count share drawn from the same market, consistent with Crunchbase's own note, in its report on the following quarter, that AI reached "53% of global funding" in Q1 2025 partly because a single OpenAI round was "a third of global funding" on its own. None of the three reports states that its AI share should equal another provider's.

Scope and revision

Each figure covers only its own provider's definition of an AI company, a category none of the three passages available here fully defines, and each is a first print for a data series still subject to the kind of upward revision described in the providers' own methodology pages. The dollar-share figures, Crunchbase's third and CB Insights' 37%, and the deal-count figure, PitchBook's 30%, measure different things and must not be presented as three confirmations of one fact; they are three separate facts that happen to point the same direction. None of the cited pages provides a combined or averaged "AI share of venture" figure, and this piece does not construct one.

The decision in front of you

A founder or analyst citing "AI's share of venture funding" should name the provider, the unit, dollars or deal count, the geography and the year, because the honest range across these three sources runs from roughly 30% to 37% depending on which of those choices is made. This specificity is an editorial requirement, not a hedge.

• Is the AI share I am citing measured in dollars or in deal count?
• Is it global or US-only, and for which calendar period?
• Would removing the single largest AI round change the provider's dollar-share figure by a meaningful amount?

A range across three named providers is more defensible than a single blended number, because the range shows exactly where each provider's definition pulls the answer.