Seventy-two % of worldwide enterprise funding funds are concentrated in U.S. synthetic intelligence (AI) corporations. The funds flowing into Korean corporations account for just one% of worldwide market funds.
The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Business introduced enterprise capital statistics from the AI Coverage Observatory operated by the Group for Financial Cooperation and Growth (OECD) on Dec. 17. The evaluation confirmed that enterprise funding within the AI sector worldwide reached a complete of $158.4 billion (roughly 233.5 trillion gained) via the third quarter of this 12 months, a fourfold enhance from $40 billion in 2015. The proportion of AI funding amongst complete enterprise investments additionally surged from 20% in 2015 to 55.7% in 2025. This sharp enhance started in 2023 when generative AI grew to become mainstream, which means greater than half of worldwide enterprise funding is now concentrated in AI.
By nation, $114 billion, or 72% of the $158.4 billion in AI enterprise funding this 12 months, was invested in U.S. corporations. Final 12 months, this proportion was 64.4%, indicating the focus phenomenon has intensified additional. The UK ranked second in AI enterprise funding attraction this 12 months with $11.5 billion, adopted by China in third place with $9 billion. Korea recorded ninth place with $1.57 billion. Korean corporations’ fund influx scale is 1/73 of the U.S., 1/7 of the UK, and 1/6 of China, accounting for merely 1% of the worldwide share. The hole is stark in comparison with second-place UK (7.3%) and third-place China (5.7%).
The hole can be evident in company funding scale in comparison with the US and China. Based mostly on final 12 months’s figures, Elon Musk’s xAI secured $11 billion in a single 12 months, whereas U.S. corporations like Databricks ($8.5 billion) and OpenAI ($6.6 billion) attracted astronomical quantities of funding. As compared, Korea’s prime firm, AI semiconductor startup ‘Rebellions’, attracted solely $140 million.
Specialists level out that for Korean startups to develop within the international enterprise funding market, targeted startup improvement contemplating home situations and regulatory surroundings reform are pressing.
Koo Ja-hyun, analysis fellow on the Korea Growth Institute (KDI), emphasised, “We should systematically help the scale-up of promising AI startups, specializing in enterprise fashions the place Korea can safe relative comparative benefits, corresponding to AI semiconductor fabless corporations and bodily AI mixed with robotics and manufacturing websites,” including, “Within the massive language mannequin (LLM) and AI service sectors, the federal government ought to present extra daring pre-purchasing to assist corporations safe substantial monitor information, laying the inspiration for attracting large-scale international funding.”
Koo Tae-eon, lawyer at Legislation Agency LIIN, additionally suggested, “Information utilization rules, unclear AI legal responsibility laws, and unpredictable regulatory enforcement trigger international traders to hesitate in investing in Korean AI startups,” stating, “Coverage design that focuses on ‘innovation help’ slightly than regulation is important.”
Kang Seok-gu, director of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Business’s Analysis Division, identified, “To enter the highest three international locations within the AI sector, which has sturdy winner-takes-all tendencies, it’s essential to strategically give attention to nurturing startups by segmenting AI power areas contemplating our competitiveness and market situations, and reorganizing the regulatory system for numerous enterprise fashions to enter the market.”
