AI funding in 2023 was broad and steady, not top-heavy. Bot Memo tracked 3,444 AI deals worth $117.4B across the year, with funding spread evenly across all four quarters and more than half of every deal landing at Seed or Series A. The median deal was $10.5M against an average of $37.1M, a gap that says the mega-rounds existed but didn’t distort the year the way the headlines suggested.
This dataset covers three kinds of AI company. AI-native (the product wouldn’t exist without the model), AI-augmented (an existing product rebuilt around machine learning), and AI-adjacent (the infrastructure that lets other companies run AI). That wide lens is why the money shows up in health, fintech, energy, and industrials, not just chatbots. 2023 was the first full year after ChatGPT, and the capital went a lot further than the model labs.
Key Takeaways:
- $117.4B deployed across 3,444 deals in 2023
- Funding stayed even quarter to quarter, from $24.6B in Q4 to $34.0B in Q3
- Seed led deal volume at 1,065 rounds (30.9% of all deals)
- Health & Biotech topped verticals by deal count (631); FinTech led by dollars ($23.2B)
- San Francisco led all cities with 325 deals, ahead of New York City (295) and London (223)
- Y Combinator was the most active investor, participating in 113 deals
On this page
- AI Funding in 2023: The Big Picture
- Quarterly Funding Trends: How 2023 Unfolded
- The Biggest AI Funding Rounds of 2023
- AI Funding by Sector: Where Investors Placed Their Bets
- Geographic Breakdown: Cities Leading AI Investment
- Most Active AI Investors in 2023
- Funding Stage Distribution: Seed to Growth
- FAQ: AI Funding in 2023
- Methodology
AI Funding in 2023: The Big Picture
The headline for artificial intelligence investment in 2023 depends entirely on what you count. Count only pure-play model companies and the number is modest. Count every startup that rebuilt its core on machine learning, plus the infrastructure underneath them, and the picture is far larger.
Bot Memo’s 2023 dataset captured 3,444 AI deals totaling $117.4B. A traditional fintech company that moved its underwriting engine to machine learning shows up here. So does CoreWeave, the GPU cloud renting compute to model labs on a $642M growth round. Neither would appear in a narrow “AI startup” tally, and both were where a lot of 2023’s capital actually went.
| Metric | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Total funding tracked | $117.4B |
| Deals tracked | 3,444 |
| Deals with disclosed amounts | 3,168 (92.0%) |
| Median deal | $10.5M |
| Average deal | $37.1M |
| Busiest quarter | Q3 ($34.0B) |
Source: Bot Memo analysis of 3,444 AI deals (January to December 2023).
The median deal of $10.5M is the number worth holding onto. Half of all 2023 AI rounds came in below it. The market stayed active well beneath the billion-dollar deals that grabbed attention, which is the opposite of a year defined by a handful of giants.
Quarterly Funding Trends: How 2023 Unfolded
AI funding by quarter was the quiet surprise of 2023. No single quarter ran away with the year. The spread from the slowest to the busiest was under $10B.
| Quarter | Deals | Funding | Avg Deal Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 889 | $29.5B | $33.2M |
| Q2 | 880 | $27.8B | $31.6M |
| Q3 | 908 | $34.0B | $37.4M |
| Q4 | 737 | $24.6B | $33.4M |
Source: Bot Memo analysis of 3,444 AI deals (2023). Quarterly totals cover the 3,414 deals with a parseable funding date.
Q3 was the busiest at $34.0B and 908 deals, but it sat only modestly ahead of Q1’s $29.5B. No mega-round distorted the quarter. The first half was slightly steadier by deal count (1,769 deals and $57.3B across Q1 and Q2), a pace that showed the market had found its floor rather than falling through it.
The second half tilted toward fewer, larger deals. Inflection AI closed a $1.3B round led by Microsoft in June, and Stripe had already booked the year’s largest raise at $6.5B in March. Q4 cooled to 737 deals, the year’s lowest count, as investors moved capital upmarket toward later-stage companies with real revenue.
The Biggest AI Funding Rounds of 2023
The top rounds of 2023 show capital concentrating in infrastructure, enterprise platforms, and energy. Not just chatbots. The list below counts new capital raised, not valuations.
| Company | Funding | Stage | Lead Investor(s) | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | $6.5B | Series I | Thrive Capital, a16z, Founders Fund | South San Francisco |
| Anthropic | $2B | Strategic | San Francisco | |
| Verkor | €2B | Series C + Debt + Subsidies | Macquarie | Dunkirk |
| H2 Green Steel (now Stegra) | €1.5B | Series B | Altor, GIC, Just Climate | Stockholm |
| Inflection AI | $1.3B | Strategic | Microsoft | Palo Alto |
| Redwood Materials | $1B | Series D | Not disclosed | Carson City |
| Octopus Energy | €800M | Growth | Not disclosed | London |
| AtlasEdge | €725M | Debt | ING Bank | London |
| CoreWeave | $642M | Growth | Fidelity | Livingston, NJ |
Source: Bot Memo analysis of 3,444 AI deals (2023). Amounts shown in the currency each round was raised in. Rounds where the dataset’s headline figure reflected a company valuation rather than new capital are excluded.
The standout pattern: four of the largest rounds went to energy and industrial companies (Verkor, H2 Green Steel, Redwood Materials, Octopus Energy). These are AI-augmented businesses using machine learning for battery optimization, grid management, and materials processing. A narrow “AI startup” definition misses them entirely.
Anthropic’s $2B came from Google as a strategic commitment, with a further $1.25B from Amazon later in the year. CoreWeave’s $642M growth round at a $7B valuation set it up as the GPU cloud of choice for AI workloads. Both point to the same 2023 reality: the biggest checks chased compute and platforms, not consumer apps.
AI Funding by Sector: Where Investors Placed Their Bets
Health & Biotech led AI deal volume in 2023 with 631 deals. That alone cuts against the idea that 2023 was only the generative AI year.
| Vertical | Deals | Share of Deals |
|---|---|---|
| Health & Biotech | 631 | 16.4% |
| FinTech | 444 | 11.6% |
| Developer Tools & AI Infrastructure | 373 | 9.7% |
| Manufacturing & Industrials | 282 | 7.3% |
| Cybersecurity | 275 | 7.2% |
| Energy & Sustainability | 259 | 6.8% |
| Marketing & Sales Tech | 231 | 6.0% |
| Transportation & Mobility | 196 | 5.1% |
| Media & Entertainment | 185 | 4.8% |
| Real Estate & Construction | 153 | 4.0% |
Source: Bot Memo analysis of 3,444 AI deals (2023). Companies operating in multiple verticals are counted in each, so shares sum above 100%.
Deal count and dollars point in different directions. Health & Biotech led on volume, but FinTech pulled the most capital at $23.2B, ahead of Health’s $18.3B and Developer Tools’ $17.9B. Drug discovery and diagnostics kept attracting a high count of smaller rounds while fintech landed fewer, larger ones.
Developer Tools & AI Infrastructure (373 deals) captured the buildout behind the generative wave. CoreWeave’s GPU cloud and the chip and compute layer beneath it are the pick-and-shovel plays that often return steadier than the application layer.
Abound, a London-based AI lending platform, raised £500M in a Series B. It’s the FinTech pattern in miniature: an established financial-services model rebuilt on machine learning rather than an “AI-first” startup launched from scratch.
Geographic Breakdown: Cities Leading AI Investment
San Francisco led all cities with 325 deals in 2023, but the spread underneath it points to a more multipolar map than the Silicon Valley story suggests.
| City | Deals |
|---|---|
| San Francisco | 325 |
| New York City | 295 |
| London | 223 |
| Boston | 105 |
| Tel Aviv | 77 |
| Austin | 73 |
| Singapore | 65 |
| Palo Alto | 56 |
| Berlin | 56 |
| Paris | 52 |
Source: Bot Memo analysis of 3,444 AI deals (2023). Companies headquartered across multiple cities are counted in each.
New York City’s 295 deals closed the gap with San Francisco more than most reports acknowledged. AlphaSense raised $100M there at a $1.8B valuation, pointing language models at financial research and business intelligence rather than building another foundation model.
London’s 223 deals made it the clear European leader. Octopus Energy raised a €800M growth round, and AtlasEdge secured €725M in debt financing for its pan-European edge data-center network. The city’s AI base spans fintech, energy, and infrastructure, a wider mix than Berlin’s 56 deals, which skew toward enterprise SaaS.
Tel Aviv produced 77 funded AI deals, more than any European city its size, and Singapore’s 65 marked Southeast Asia’s rise as a funding hub. The map for AI capital in 2023 stretched well past the Bay Area.
Most Active AI Investors in 2023
Y Combinator led the 2023 rankings with 113 deals, ahead of Alumni Ventures (59), Andreessen Horowitz (57), and Lightspeed Venture Partners (57). Platform investors with broad portfolio strategies set the pace. Our most active AI investors tracker follows how these rankings shift over time.
| Investor | Deals Participated In |
|---|---|
| Y Combinator | 113 |
| Alumni Ventures | 59 |
| Andreessen Horowitz | 57 |
| Lightspeed Venture Partners | 57 |
| General Catalyst | 52 |
| Khosla Ventures | 50 |
| Insight Partners | 47 |
| Sequoia Capital | 42 |
| Gaingels | 42 |
| Founders Fund | 35 |
Source: Bot Memo analysis of 3,444 AI deals (2023). Counts reflect every deal an investor took part in, lead or co-investor. Multi-investor rounds attribute the full deal to each participant, so these counts should not be summed into a market total.
Bessemer Venture Partners and Accel also participated in 35 deals each, tied with Founders Fund.
Y Combinator’s 113-deal count reflects its accelerator model, which seeds dozens of AI startups per batch. Alumni Ventures (59 deals) and Gaingels (42 deals) show the growing weight of syndicate-style platforms in AI dealmaking.
Corporate money mattered more than any single quarter’s headline. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and NVIDIA all wrote strategic checks into model and infrastructure companies in 2023, a pattern that would define the funding map for the next two years.
Funding Stage Distribution: Seed to Growth
Seed rounds led 2023’s deal volume, accounting for 1,065 of 3,444 deals (30.9% of the total). The distribution by funding stage skewed early all year.
| Stage | Deals | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Seed | 1,065 | 30.9% |
| Series A | 904 | 26.2% |
| Series B | 414 | 12.0% |
| Growth Investment | 272 | 7.9% |
| Series C | 178 | 5.2% |
| Pre-Seed | 158 | 4.6% |
| Debt | 93 | 2.7% |
| Series D | 86 | 2.5% |
| Series E and later | 46 | 1.3% |
| Other / strategic / convertible | 228 | 6.6% |
Source: Bot Memo analysis of 3,444 AI deals (2023). Stage counts sum to the full 3,444.
Seed plus Series A together (1,969 deals, 57.2%) show that more than half of all AI deal activity happened at the earliest stages. That’s the pipeline feeding future growth rounds, and it stayed active straight through the venture downturn.
Pre-Seed (158 deals) and Seed (1,065 deals) together made up 35.5% of deal volume. Early-stage formation held up even as late-stage minting slowed.
Growth-stage capital was fewer deals but big dollars. The 272 Growth Investment rounds totaled $14.7B (12.5% of the year) and the 178 Series C rounds accounted for $13.0B (11.1%), together 23.6% of the $117.4B. Late-stage investors concentrated their bets on proven companies rather than spreading capital thin.
FAQ: AI Funding in 2023
How much funding did AI startups raise in 2023?
Bot Memo tracked $117.4B across 3,444 deals in 2023, covering AI-native, AI-augmented, and AI-adjacent companies. The total runs higher than pure-play counts because it includes companies that rebuilt an existing product on machine learning, plus the infrastructure that lets others run AI.
Which AI companies raised the most money in 2023?
The largest new-capital rounds were Stripe ($6.5B Series I), Anthropic ($2B strategic from Google), Verkor (€2B), H2 Green Steel (€1.5B Series B), and Inflection AI ($1.3B). Energy and industrial companies featured heavily alongside the infrastructure and platform plays.
Which sectors attracted the most AI investment in 2023?
Health & Biotech led by deal count with 631 deals (16.4%), followed by FinTech (444) and Developer Tools & AI Infrastructure (373). By dollars the order flips: FinTech pulled the most capital at $23.2B, ahead of Health & Biotech’s $18.3B.
Which funding stage was most active in 2023?
Seed rounds led with 1,065 deals, 30.9% of the year’s total. Seed and Series A combined for 1,969 deals (57.2%), meaning more than half of all AI dealmaking happened at the earliest stages even during a tight venture market.
Which cities led AI startup funding in 2023?
San Francisco led with 325 deals, followed by New York City (295) and London (223). Those three cities accounted for 843 deals, 24.5% of all 2023 AI deals in the dataset.
How did AI funding move through 2023?
It stayed remarkably even. Q3 was the busiest quarter at $34.0B across 908 deals, but the quietest quarter, Q4, still landed $24.6B. No single quarter or mega-round defined the year, which is unusual for a market this concentrated at the top.
Methodology
This analysis covers 3,444 AI funding deals tracked in the Bot Memo dataset from January 1 through December 31, 2023.
Scope: Bot Memo tracks three categories of AI company. AI-native (AI is foundational to the product), AI-augmented (an existing product enhanced with AI), and AI-adjacent (infrastructure that enables AI). This wider scope is why the $117.4B total exceeds narrower core-AI counts.
Currency: Top-round figures are shown in the currency each deal was raised in. Aggregate totals convert non-USD rounds to USD at exchange rates applied at analysis time, spanning EUR, GBP, CNY, JPY, SEK, and others. Some conversions on non-USD rounds are approximate.
New capital vs valuation: Funding figures reflect new capital raised. Rounds where a reported company valuation had been recorded in place of the raise are excluded from the largest-rounds table.
Multi-entity attribution: Companies operating in multiple verticals or cities are counted in each, so vertical and city subtotals exceed the dataset total. Deals with multiple investors attribute the full deal to each participant, so investor-level counts should not be summed into a market total.
Reconciliation: Stage counts sum to the full 3,444. Quarterly totals cover the 3,414 deals carrying a parseable funding date; the remaining 30 lack one. Funding amounts are disclosed for 3,168 of 3,444 deals (92.0%); median and average deal sizes are computed on that disclosed subset.
About the author
Editorial Staff
The Editorial Staff at Bot Memo is a team of writers, analysts, and AI agents dedicated to mapping the global AI startup ecosystem. Led by Chintan Zalani, the team tracks thousands of funding rounds, classifies companies across verticals, and distills it all into actionable intelligence for investors and founders.
