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 ๐๐ผ๐ณ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฝ๐ 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!
๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ป๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ $ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ด๐ผ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐๐๐ฝ๐
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 ๐
------------------------------
Peter Walker
------------------------------