How Did AI Capture $200B In 2025 Venture? 🤖💰📈

TL;DR

• AI startups grabbed nearly half of global venture
• Fresh seed rounds fuel vertical AI platforms
• Agentic AI moves from concept to production
• Governments race to lock in AI regulation

HEADLINES

Lemon Slice raised $10.5M to video‑ify chatbots 🎥🔗

Dazzle AI secured $8M for intuitive consumer AI tools ✨🔗

Coforge launched EvolveOps.AI for autonomous IT operations 🤖🔗

PM Publishers and Google turning 2M textbooks into Gemini tutors 📚🔗

Taiwan Legislature passed landmark Artificial Intelligence Basic Act ⚖️🔗

FROM THE BIG PLAYERS

Nvidia agreed $20B acquisition of AI‑chip startup Groq 💾🔗

Meta Platforms invested $14.3B into Scale AI this year 🧠🔗

Saudi PIF‑backed Humain awarded SR1.88B AI data‑center build to MIS 🏗️🔗

Alphabet acquired Intersect Power for $4.75B AI energy supply ⚡🔗

RAISES

Lemon Slice raised $10.5M seed from Matrix, YC 💸🔗

Dazzle AI raised $8M seed led by Forerunner 🌟🔗

Ankar raised $20M Series A led by Atomico 📄🔗

NEW LAUNCHES

Coforge launched EvolveOps.AI agentic operations platform 🚀🔗

MiniTool unveiled MiniTool Screen Recorder 1.0 desktop suite 🎬🔗

Watsons Water announced AI‑designed “Hong Kong Landmark” bottle series 🧴🔗

Aeva Technologies pushed 4D LiDAR into “Physical AI” systems 🚘🔗

TRY THESE TOOLS

EvolveOps.AI agentic AI for autonomous IT operations 🛠️🔗

Apna AI Calling Agent automates recruiter screening calls at scale 📞🔗

MiniTool Screen Recorder captures 4K screen, webcam, and audio 🖥️🔗

Lemon Slice‑2 streams digital avatars at 20fps per GPU 🧑‍🚀🔗

Gemini Textbook Gems turn static books into interactive AI tutors 🎓🔗

METRICS

AI startups captured ~50% of 2025 global venture funding 📊🔗

Deeptech firms raised $1.57B across 265 deals in 2025 📈🔗

Seed funding put $15.25B into AI startups, 42% of global seed 💵🔗

Apna’s platform logged 73 lakh AI interview sessions in 2025 📞🔗

AI in manufacturing projected from $8.57B to $230.95B by 2034 🏭🔗

BENCHMARKS

Data Science Week 2025 cemented agentic AI as post‑chatbot enterprise standard 📘🔗

Ukraine jumped 14 spots to 40th in AI readiness index 🇺🇦🔗

Philippines climbed seven places to 49th in AI readiness 📊🔗

Lenny’s AI survey found 55% say AI exceeds expectations 🧪🔗

Apna report shows AI screening adopted by 6,000+ employers 🧑‍💼🔗

INFRA & COSTS

Bank of America projects chips near $1T revenue in 2026 💾🔗

Nvidia–Groq licensing deal brings Groq inference tech into future GPUs 🖥️🔗

Humain–MIS project AI data center contract equals 155% of MIS 2024 revenue 🏭🔗

Smart factories use AI vision hitting 99% defect‑detection accuracy 🤖🔗

VALUATIONS

OpenAI pegged around $500B private valuation in 2025 🏷️🔗

Anthropic reached about $180B valuation after mega‑rounds 🧬🔗

Groq deal values startup exit at $20B all‑cash 💰🔗

Seed mega‑rounds $10M+ reached $16.16B, record concentration 📌🔗

POLICY

Taiwan passed AI Basic Act, naming NSTC regulator 📜🔗

Vietnam approved first comprehensive AI Law effective March 1, 2026 🇻🇳🔗

Taiwan AI Basic Act formalizes risk tiers and principle‑based governance ⚖️🔗

Philippines policy score hits 84.5 in AI governance capacity 📑🔗

SOVEREIGN

Humain, backed by Saudi PIF commissioning massive AI data center with MIS 🏛️🔗

New Zealand government shortlisted five concepts for $70M AI research platform 🇳🇿🔗

Ukraine’s digital ministry targets top‑three global AI readiness by 2030 🎯🔗

MeetKai and GSMA push “sovereign AI” language stacks with telcos 🌐🔗

SECTORS

Manufacturing deployed agentic AI for predictive maintenance and QA 🏭🔗

Hiring and HR scaled AI agents for screening and interviews 🧑‍💻🔗

Education deployed Gemini‑powered AI tutors in textbooks 🏫🔗

Consumer packaged goods used AI‑generated art for collectible packaging 🛍️🔗

Vertical AI startups dominated 2025 venture across legal, infra, defense 🚀🔗

COMMUNITY MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Lenny Rachitsky published large‑scale survey on real‑world AI productivity 🌐🔗