The 2025 funding data reveals structural confirmation of winner-take-most dynamics. Foundation model companies captured 40% of all global AI funding ($80 billion), up from 27% in 2024.
$40B SoftBank commitment to OpenAI—largest single AI investment in history
$13B Anthropic raise at $183B valuation; revenue from $1B to $5B in 8 months
The Capital Stack Inversion
Source
Amount
Rounds
Private Equity
$63B
300
Venture Capital
$38B
1,600
PE now funds the largest AI bets while VC handles volume. This mirrors the M&A pattern where 68 megadeals (≥$10B) drove market transformation while total deal count fell to 2016 lows.
Structural Implication
The capital stack has inverted. Like megadeal M&A, transformation is now driven by a small number of oversized bets, not startup volume. The top 2 foundation models (OpenAI, Anthropic) captured 14% of all global venture investment in 2025.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
