AI startups raised $6.9 billion in Q1 2020, a record-setting pace before coronavirus

AI startups continued to outpace the overall U.S. venture capital market in the first quarter of 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic is expected to have a severe impact on funding across all sectors for the rest of the year. According to data from the National Venture Capital Association, 285 AI-related companies in the U.S. raised $6.9 billion in the first quarter of 2020. At that pace, AI funding would have easily topped the $19.98 billion raised by 1,509 companies in 2019, according to the Q1 2020 PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. The report adjusted the latter up from its previous report of $18.05 billion for 2019. Those figures are the lastest sign of the growing impact technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are having on an expanding range of industries.