AI isn't just an SF startup thing

Which US city loves AI startups the most?

Everyone always says SF. And yeah...they're right. More than half of the capital invested into Bay Area startups in the past 18 months has gone to AI companies.

But if you read past the eye-watering dollar amounts available in the Bay (and to be clear, those are not really available anywhere else), you see that LOTS of places across the US have fallen head over heels for AI startups.

Data below:

Black bars = total capital raised by 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀 on Carta in that metro area.
Orange bars = the percentage of that capital that went to AI companies

So if you're ranking cities by share of capital to AI, rather than just absolute dollars...the winner is Pittsburgh!

𝗥𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 $ 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀

1. Pittsburgh (85.5% to AI)
2. Philly (84% to AI)
3. Seattle (57%)
4. Bay Area (56%)
5. Salt Lake / Provo (54%)
6. Denver / Boulder (52%)
7. Atlanta (48%)
8. Boston (45.5%)
9. San Diego (44.6%)
10. Miami (36.6%)

The AI craze has taken over the nation, effectively. Now it's still true that 50 cents or so of every dollar invested into AI goes to a Bay Area startup - but that doesn't mean other cities aren't interested. They just have less money to go around.

Note that this analysis only includes software companies, not hardware / biotech / etc.

Welcome to fundraising season! Good luck to the founders pitching over the next few months 🙏

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Peter Walker
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