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China edges out US in AI investment

August 28, 2018

Chinese AI startups raised $5 billion in venture capital funding during 2017 — a half-billion more than their U.S. counterparts — indicating investor confidence in the technologies, business strategies, and market potential of Chinese startups, according to research by market advisory firm ABI Research.

In global terms, investment values for AI startups increased 150 percent — from $4 billion to $10.7 billion — between 2016 and 2017. U.S. startups raised $4.4 billion from 155 investments, while Chinese startups netted $4.9 billion from 19 investments.

"The bullish sentiment shared among Chinese investors is a clear sign that China is going all-in in artificial intelligence," said Lian Jye Su, a principal analyst at ABI. "The government of China is setting clear policy guidelines for the future development of AI, and startups are responding with cutting edge AI technologies across many industries."

ABI found that AI startups in Europe have diversified interests across different industries and verticals, mainly for use cases such as cybersecurity, digital ID, public safety, healthcare, and IoT.

U.S. startups tend to target key AI sectors such as automotive, agriculture, finance, cloud robotics platform and insurance.

The findings are from AI Investment Monitor 2017 by ABI Research.