December 31, 2024

Hi there, 

Happy New Year’s Eve. 

Here are 7 top charts to ring in 2025 and help you understand what’s next for tech:

1. AI’s cash grab
2. Big tech’s capex heads toward $200B in 2025
3. AI agent landscape explodes
4. Fintech and digital health face sluggish VC environment
5. The AI drug discovery arms race
6. The new space economy
7. Quantum advances spur fresh interest in the sector

AI’s cash grab

AI startups are grabbing 1 in 3 VC dollars. 

They’re also taking over the unicorn club — nearly half of companies getting $1B+ valuations right now are AI startups.

And they’re getting to that mark faster (median of 2 years vs. 9 for non-AI unicorns) and with less headcount (203 vs. 414).

Big tech’s capex heads toward $200B in 2025

Tech giants are making massive investments in AI infrastructure like high-powered data centers. 

This spending is creating opportunities across the AI data center value chain, from energy providers (like nuclear) to support infrastructure (like cooling).

AI agent landscape explodes

AI agents — LLM-powered bots that can independently execute workflows — have seen a massive increase in interest. 

Funding to AI agent startups more than doubled year-over-year in 2024.

Over 40% of companies in the landscape have moved past the validating stage of commercial maturity and are actively growing commercial distribution.

Fintech and digital health face sluggish VC environment

Funding and deals continue to sit at multi-year lows for the digital health and fintech sectors. 

The M&A environment is also largely stagnant. 

Fintech exit valuations in particular have been compressed (at $1.1M per employee since 2023) compared to other sectors.

The reset is creating opportunities for strategic acquirers.

The AI drug discovery arms race

All 10 of the largest big pharma players globally have partnered with AI drug discovery startups since 2023.

And 9 out of 10 are simultaneously developing in-house AI-powered discovery engines.  

But AI-generated drugs still need to pass the clinical test. We cover what’s next.

The new space economy

Cheaper access to space is sparking an investor rush.

Y Combinator publicly called for more space tech startups in September 2024.

Watch satellite applications in particular.

Quantum advances spur fresh interest in the sector 

Equity funding to quantum computing companies has crossed the $1B mark 3 years in a row. 

A diverse cohort of startups is also racing to commercialize the still-nascent tech. 

Expect commercial interest to rise quickly as quantum computers become more capable.

CB Insights customers can track 400+ quantum tech companies here. 

I love you.

Anand

@asanwal 

Co-Founder & Exec Chair

P.S. Get our free Tech Trends 2025 Report here. All data, no BS.

Get started with CB Insights

CB Insights' emerging technology insights platform provides all the

analysis and data from this newsletter. Our data is the easiest way to discover and respond to emerging tech. 

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here