"AI Boom" or "AI Bubble"? 10 AI Unicorns, Valuation Increased by 1 Trillion in One Year, VC Investment Exceeds 200 Billion USD in One Year, Profit is 0
These ten companies include OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Perplexity, Scale AI... Since the beginning of this year, they have collectively attracted over $200 billion in venture capital funding, accounting for two-thirds of the total annual investment by U.S. VCs. However, they are almost all in a state of loss
The wave of artificial intelligence is sweeping across global capital markets — but will this wave give rise to new tech giants, or will it lead to yet another bubble?
According to the latest report from the Financial Times, the combined valuation of ten unprofitable AI startups globally has surged by nearly $1 trillion in the past 12 months, marking the fastest wealth expansion in history.
These ten companies include OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Perplexity, Scale AI, Safe Superintelligence, Thinking Machines Lab, Figure AI, Anysphere, and Databricks. This year, they have collectively attracted over $200 billion in venture capital funding, accounting for two-thirds of the total VC investment in the U.S. for the year.
However, they are almost all in a state of loss.
VC burns $200 billion in a year, betting on AI
The venture capital scene in 2025 has been completely ignited by AI.
PitchBook data shows that U.S. VCs will invest over $200 billion in AI this year, far exceeding the $135 billion during the "Software as a Service (SaaS)" bubble in 2021. In contrast, at the peak of the internet bubble in 2000, funding for internet companies was only $10.5 billion (approximately $20 billion adjusted for inflation).
General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja candidly stated, “Of course, this is a bubble. Bubbles are good; they concentrate capital and talent on new trends — although they can cause chaos, they also nurture companies that can change the world.”
"Distorted Valuations" of AI Unicorns
In Silicon Valley, an AI company with an annual revenue of only $5 million is now asking for a valuation as high as $500 million, which is 100 times its revenue.
A top VC partner admitted, “Even in a zero-interest-rate environment, such companies would only be valued at $250 million to $300 million. The current market is like everyone is assuming they have invested in the next OpenAI.”
Behind this "betting-style" investment logic is a collective FOMO (fear of missing out) sentiment. Samir Dholakia, an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners, said, “AI is a technology that can add a zero to everything.”
"Winner Takes All" Expectations
Lucas Swisher, a partner at Coatue Capital, believes that the landscape of AI may repeat the patterns of the internet era — ultimately, only a very few companies will emerge victorious.
“Back then, Google and Meta almost monopolized the entire market. This time, it might be 15 companies instead of 5.”
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was more straightforward: “Perhaps $1 trillion of AI investment will be wasted, but ultimately AI will create ten times the value. The way technological innovation works has always been — throw money at it and see what sticks to the wall.”
Risk Spillover: From Startups to the Stock Market
Today, the valuation fluctuations of AI private companies are beginning to impact the public market.
In the past few weeks, giants like AMD, NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Oracle have seen their market values soar by hundreds of billions of dollars due to partnerships with OpenAI. If these AI startups face cash flow issues, the chain reaction could drag down the entire tech stock sector.
Although OpenAI's annual revenue has reached $13 billion, competition with Microsoft and Google has plunged it into a cash-burning war. The costs of training the next generation of models are rising exponentially, while the timeline for profitability remains unclear.
Sebastian Malaby, author of "The Venture Capitalist's Way," summarizes this wave of enthusiasm in one sentence:
"If we can achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), it will all be worth it; if not, then it will all be worthless."
Investors are betting not only on the computational power of the models but also on whether Sam Altman can replicate human intelligence.
A Prosperity or a Bubble?
AI may indeed open up a trillion-dollar new market, but the current capital frenzy carries a familiar scent—valuations are severely detached from profits, and stories precede facts.
Is this the prologue to an "AI prosperity," or yet another reenactment of a "bubble myth"?
When everyone believes that the future belongs only to a few "AI black hole companies," bubbles are often not far from bursting
