The U.S.'s Lead in AI Dealmaking is Slipping

AI startups raised a record $7.4 billion in funding last quarter across 487 deals, according to CB Insights research shared with me. The median deal size for the first half of 2019 hit an all-time high of $3.7 million, up from $3 million over the same stretch last year.

Where? U.S. companies closed 39.5% of all deals in Q1 and Q2 2019. China was second with 12.5% and the U.K. third with 7.1%. There’s been a big uptick in Japan and noticeable growth across the rest of Asia, CB Insights’s Lead Analyst Deepashri Varadharajan told me.

Though the U.S. leads in dealmaking, the rest of the world is quickly gaining momentum. As Axios notes, American startups took home roughly three-fourths of all AI deals in 2013. By 2018, that share was 40%.

Why could that be? AI M&A activity hit an all-time high in Q1 2019. Guess who’s most actively snapping up AI startups in the U.S.? Hint: They go by FAMGA.