Despite what some experts have characterized as an environment increasingly hostile to AI R&D, North America continues to receive the bulk of AI venture dollars, according to data from investment tracker PitchBook.
Between February and May of this year, VCs poured $69.7 billion into North America-based AI and machine learning startups across 1,528 deals. That’s compared with $6.4 billion that VC firms invested in European AI ventures across 742 deals across the same period.
Asia-based startups have fared a bit worse than their European counterparts, according to PitchBook. Between February and May, VCs invested just $3 billion in Asia-based AI startups across 515 deals.
Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has dramatically cut funding to scientific grants related to basic AI research, made it more difficult for foreign students specializing in AI to study in the U.S., and threatened to dismantle university-housed AI labs by freezing billions of dollars in federal funds. The administration’s trade policies, meanwhile, including its retaliatory tariffs, have led to a chaotic market unfavorable for risky new AI ventures.
In a post on X in March, AI pioneer and Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton called for billionaire Elon Musk, who until recently advised Trump’s cost-cutting group, the Department of Government Efficiency, to be expelled from the British Royal Society “because of the huge damage he is doing to scientific institutions in the U.S.”
One might expect that Europe, which has pledged to become a global leader in AI, would attract more venture capital in light of Trump’s controversial policies in the U.S., which have created uncertainty and confusion for founders, investors, and researchers alike. Moreover, the EU has committed hundreds of billions of euros to support the development of AI within its member countries and already has a number of successful, well-funded AI startups in its ranks (see Mistral, H, and Aleph Alpha, to name a few).
But that anticipated shift in global investment hasn’t come to pass. There isn’t any sign of a mass VC exodus to the bloc, or of significant upticks in AI funding overseas — at least not yet.
The same is true for China, which has spawned high-profile AI startups like DeepSeek and Butterfly Effect — the company behind the agentic platform Manus — but where VC activity in the country and the broader Asian region remains relatively austere. (Export controls impacting the ability of certain Asian countries to procure AI chips are almost certainly a factor.)
In 2024, North American startups secured 75.6% of all VC AI funding — $106.24 billion. That share has only increased this year. So far in 2025, North American AI investments represent 86.2% ($79.74 billion) of all VC funding for AI globally.
It paints a somewhat surprising picture. Even amid mounting political and regulatory headwinds under Trump’s second term, the U.S. remains the undisputed center for AI capital, meaning investors, fatigued as they may be by the administration’s unpredictability, are still counting on U.S. innovation to deliver the biggest returns, at least for now.
