Equity deals to startups in artificial intelligence -- including companies applying AI solutions to verticals like healthcare, advertising, and finance as well as those developing general-purpose AI tech -- increased nearly 6x, from roughly 70 in 2011 to nearly 400 in 2015. Q1'16 saw a new peak in deal activity to the category. So far in 2016 (as of 6/15/2016), over 200 AI-focused companies have raised nearly 1.5B in equity funding. Our analysis includes all equity funding rounds and convertible notes.

Equity deals to startups in artificial intelligence -- including companies applying AI solutions to verticals like healthcare, advertising, and finance as well as those developing general-purpose AI tech -- increased nearly 6x, from roughly 70 in 2011 to nearly 400 in 2015. Q1'16 saw a new peak in deal activity to the category. So far in 2016 (as of 6/15/2016), over 200 AI-focused companies have raised nearly 1.5B in equity funding. Our analysis includes all equity funding rounds and convertible notes. Deals and dollars reached a new high in 2015.

In the past half-decade, artificial intelligence has gone from the stuff of science fiction to components of major factory floors, cognitive technology expert Neil Jacobstein said at a Singularity University event in Boston Tuesday. Jacobstein chairs the AI & Robotics department at Singularity, the tech-driven benefit corporation that includes the likes of Google, Cisco and Deloitte among its founders. Investment in AI has skyrocketed in recent years, with more than 3 billion in VC funds invested in cognitive technologies from 2011 to 2015. During that time, more than 100 AI companies merged or were acquired, "by the usual suspects: Alphabet, IBM, Facebook, Amazon, [and] Google," said Jacobstein. Beyond the investment world, enterprises have begun seriously implementing AI technology into their manufacturing businesses.