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This column is a look back at the week that was in AI. Read the previous one here.

Investors still can鈥檛 get enough of AI.

That鈥檚 the most obvious takeaway from a quick glance of funding numbers for the just-completed third quarter. In Q3, AI-related startups raised $18.9 billion, . That is the second-largest quarter for AI funding 鈥� behind only Q2, which saw $23.4 billion invested 鈥� since the launch of in November 2022.

While the third-quarter number represents a 19% drop from the second quarter, it is also a nearly 30% increase from last year which saw 鈥渙nly鈥� $14.6 billion invested in AI-related startups.

Big rounds abound

With nearly $19 billion raised, there were,聽 of course, some big rounds 鈥� including:

• 鈥檚 $5 billion investment into autonomous vehicle tech developer .
• Artificial intelligence research lab raised $1 billion from several big-name investors including and . The round valued the Palo Alto, California-based company at $5 billion, per , which first reported the round.
• AI semiconductor and software startup locked up a $640 million Series D led by funds and accounts managed by at a valuation of $2.8 billion.
• Toronto-based raised a $500 million Series D at a $5.5 billion valuation. The new round reportedly will be led by Canadian pension investment manager .

Despite those big rounds, last quarter lagged behind Q2 likely because the latter had more extremely large $500 million-or-more rounds. In fact, Q2 witnessed twice as many 鈥� eight 鈥� and three times as many $1 billion-plus rounds.

That obviously included 鈥檚 generative AI startup, , which officially announced its long-rumored $6 billion round at a $24 billion valuation that included investment from , , , , Management & Research Co., Prince and , among others.

Deal flow and looking ahead

Another interesting thing to note about the third-quarter numbers 鈥� aside from the massive dollar figure 鈥� is that deal flow actually is down. In fact, deal flow has declined the past two quarters and in Q3 dipped under 1,000 rounds for the first time since launched.

Deal flow fell from 1,211 rounds announced in Q2 to only 947 in Q3 鈥� a 22% decline. That drop is even more massive when looking at last year鈥檚 Q3, which saw 1,444 investment deals 鈥� 34% more than last quarter.

With the dollar total going up and deal flow numbers dropping, that likely means more big deals for more proven AI startups (or at least those that can convince investors of their AI chops) and fewer early seed and Series A deals for young startups.

Such a scenario is likely when one considers investors only have so much money to place bets on AI startups, and with big valuations associated with those big rounds, that money can dry up quickly.

Don鈥檛 expect the dollar amount to drop much in Q4. On Wednesday, officially announced its long-awaited $6.6 billion raise, led by , at a post-money valuation of $157 billion. There are also OpenAI rival is looking for more cash very soon.

With so many generative AI startups (the ones raising the really big rounds) burning through so much cash so quickly, we may continue to see big venture dollar totals for the next several quarters even as the number of fundings continues to cascade downward.

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Related reading:

• Cohere Raises $500M At $5.5B Valuation
• AI鈥檚 Big Day 鈥� Startup Safe Superintelligence Raises $1B At Reported $5B Valuation
• SoftBank To Invest $500M In OpenAI 鈥� Report

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