Even as economies struggle with the chaos of the pandemic, the AI startup space continues to grow stronger with increased investments and M&A deals. According to the latest State of AI report from CB Insights, the global funding in the segment has seen a significant surge, growing from $16.6 billion across 588 deals in Q2 2021 (figures show $20B due to the inclusion of two public subsidiary fundings) to $17.9 billion across 841 deals in the third quarter. Throughout the year (which is yet to end), AI startups around the world raised $50 billion across 2000 deals with 138 mega-rounds of 100 million. As much as $8.5 billion of the total investment went into healthcare AI, $3.1 billion went into fintech AI, while $2.6 billion went into retail AI. The findings show how AI has become a driving force across nearly every industry and is drawing significant attention from VCs, CVCs, and other investors.

All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now. The pandemic spurred investments in AI across nearly every industry. That's according to CB Insights' AI in the Numbers Q2 2021 report, which found that AI startups attracted record funding -- more than $20 billion -- despite a drop in deal volume. While the adoption rate varies between businesses, a majority of them -- 95% in a recent S&P Global report -- consider AI to be important in their digital transformation efforts. Organizations were expected to invest more than $50 billion in AI systems globally in 2020, according to IDC, up from $37.5 billion in 2019. And by 2024, investment is expected to reach $110 billion.

As part of an annual look at global AI investment trends, CB Insights today reported that AI startups raised a record $26.6 billion in 2019, spanning more than 2,200 deals worldwide. That's compared to roughly 1,900 deals totaling $22.1 billion in 2018 and about 1,700 deals totaling $16.8 billion in 2017. The reported high recorded by CB Insights in the AI in Numbers report is in line with analysis by other organizations keeping an eye on investment in the AI ecosystem. The National Venture Capital Association earlier this month said that although overall venture capital spending took a dip last year, investors spent a record $18.4 billion on AI startups in the United States in 2019. With investment highest in fields like autonomous driving, drug research, finance, and facial recognition, the AI Index 2019 report released last month found more than $70 billion in global private investment in AI.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become one of the hottest sectors in recent years, with its technology promising to revolutionize and automate every industry imaginable. We have been covering this trend, showing a massive increase in AI startup funding. As you can see in the graphic below, AI funding more than doubled from 2016 to 2017. Its funding more than tripled from 2016 to 2018. This phenomenon then begs the question – what caused this explosive growth in AI funding?

The competition between China and the US in AI development is tricky to quantify. While we do have some hard numbers, even they are open to interpretation. The latest comes from technology analysts CB Insights, which reports that China has overtaken the US in the funding of AI startups. The country accounted for 48 percent of the world's total AI startup funding in 2017, compared to 38 percent for the US. The bottom line is that China is ahead when it comes to the dollar value of AI startup funding, which CB Insights says shows the country is "aggressively executing a thoroughly-designed vision for AI."

The competition between China and the US in AI development is tricky to quantify. While we do have some hard numbers, even they are open to interpretation. The latest comes from technology analysts CB Insights, which reports that China has overtaken the US in the funding of AI startups. The country accounted for 48 percent of the world's total AI startup funding in 2017, compared to 38 percent for the US. In terms of the volume of individual deals, the country only accounts for 9 percent of the total, while the US leads in both the total number of AI startups and total funding overall.

Artificial intelligence startups worldwide raised a record $15.2 billion in 2017, according to American research firm CB Insights. Chinese businesses accounted for 48% of the total, up from just 11.6% in 2016. The U.S. placed second with 38%.