Attracting 24 Trillion Won in Investments in Q3 Alone
As the trend of high interest rates prolongs and the post-pandemic downturn deepens, technology startups worldwide are facing a harsh investment climate, but massive funds continue to flow into the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
On the 17th (local time), Bloomberg News cited data from market research firm PitchBook, reporting that investment in AI startups worldwide in the third quarter of this year surged 27% year-on-year to $17.9 billion (approximately 24.1883 trillion KRW). This contrasts sharply with the overall investment in technology startups during the same period, which plummeted 31% year-on-year.
Bloomberg reported that the popularity of 'ChatGPT,' which sparked the generative AI craze, has made AI-related companies promising investment destinations, attracting large sums of money. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, received a $10 billion investment from Microsoft (MS) earlier this year, and Anthropic, considered a rival to OpenAI, announced a $4 billion investment from Amazon last month.
Bloomberg evaluated, "While venture capital investment has decreased compared to previous years due to rising interest rates and recession effects, the investment gap between AI and non-AI sectors is widening."
The venture capital industry compares the current AI boom to the period just before the internet industry took off in 2000. Pravin Akiraju, Chief Investment Officer at Insight Partners, stated, "Just as user-friendly interfaces became popular and the internet spread, AI programs like ChatGPT are gaining attention, leading to explosive growth in the AI market."
However, some express caution, saying that evaluations of AI technology and market potential are inflated beyond reality. A representative example is the enterprise software sector, which sparked an investment frenzy just a few years ago. Enterprise software is an AI field that provides software to digitalize and automatically handle repetitive tasks such as finance, human resource management, and manufacturing, attracting attention from the venture capital industry.
At that time, companies like UiPath and Snowflake made a dazzling debut on the New York Stock Exchange backed by large venture capital investments, but their stock prices have since declined, realizing investment losses. The stock prices of UiPath and Snowflake, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, have dropped approximately 78% and 34%, respectively, compared to their IPO prices (as of the closing price on the day).
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