AI Grabbed 53% of Global Venture Capital in 2025, WIPO Says

Artificial intelligence captured 53 percent of global venture capital deal value in 2025, even as the total number of deals fell for a fourth consecutive year. That concentration is the headline finding of the Global Innovation Index 2026, published Tuesday by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.

Overall venture funding for innovative startups grew 28 percent to $510 billion in 2025 — the strongest gain since 2021, according to the report. The rebound extends beyond venture capital. Global R&D expenditure rose more than 3.3 percent in real terms in 2025 and is expected to reach $3.4 trillion in 2026. Corporate R&D climbed 5.8 percent in 2025 to a record $1.5 trillion, driven by software, AI and defense-related research.

The cash is increasingly flowing toward companies built on frontier research. WIPO counts more than 30,000 deep-science startups created since 2000 — nearly ten times the 2010 figure. Their share of venture-backed startups reached 16 percent in 2025. Together, these firms are worth $7.6 trillion, up 23 percent from 2024.

"AI is opening new technological frontiers across all fields of science," said WIPO Director General Daren Tang. "Our 2026 GII report shows that a new generation of deep-science startups is translating breakthroughs into products and transforming fields such as life sciences, space, robotics and clean energy."

The United States leads the deep-science count with 12,752 firms. China follows with 3,466 and the United Kingdom with 2,133. Growth since 2020 has been fastest in Central and Southern Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. The sectors span semiconductors, robotics, quantum computing, life sciences, space and advanced materials.

Emerging markets are also posting sharp gains in startup funding. African startups raised about $3.2 billion in 2025, up 40 percent.

On the country rankings, Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the Republic of Korea and Singapore top the 2026 index. China, India, Vietnam, Türkiye, the Philippines, Morocco and Indonesia have climbed quickly over the past decade.

WIPO publishes the index annually, ranking 139 economies on their innovation ecosystems using 79 indicators. The 2026 edition was released at the organization's Geneva headquarters on Sept. 29, 2026.

The report's underlying message for investors and policymakers: innovation capital is recovering, but it is narrowing — pouring disproportionately into AI and a deep-science cohort that is converting laboratory breakthroughs into trillion-dollar industries.