Beyond OpenAI: How Vertical AI and Infrastructure Dominated 2025 Venture Capital
- Record-Breaking Capital: 49 US AI startups raised rounds of over $100 million in 2025, matching 2024's total volume but with significantly higher valuations, led by OpenAI’s $40 billion raise.
- Rise of Vertical Agents: Investment has shifted toward specialized AI for specific industries, with healthcare (Hippocratic AI, Abridge) and legal tech (Harvey, EvenUp) seeing massive inflows.
- [Entri Summery 3]
The year 2025 has cemented itself as a watershed moment for the artificial intelligence industry, matching the frantic investment pace of 2024 even before the calendar year has concluded. According to data tracked by TechCrunch, 49 US-based startups have secured funding rounds of $100 million or more, signaling that the appetite for AI investment has transitioned from experimental curiosity to high-stakes scaling. While 2024 was defined by the initial explosion of generative interest, 2025 has been characterized by massive capital injections into companies that are either building the physical backbone of the AI economy or deploying highly specialized "agents" to revolutionize specific white-collar professions.
At the top of the food chain, the battle for foundation model dominance has escalated into a war of balance sheets. OpenAI shattered records with a staggering $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank, pushing its valuation to $300 billion. Its primary rival, Anthropic, was not far behind, executing a two-stage capital raise totaling $16.5 billion over the year, culminating in a valuation of $183 billion. These astronomical figures suggest that the "foundation layer" of AI is becoming a game accessible only to entities with sovereign-nation-level resources, as the cost of training frontier models continues to compound.
However, the most intriguing trend of 2025 is the aggressive funding of "vertical AI"—platforms designed to master specific, high-value industries rather than general-purpose tasks. The legal and healthcare sectors have emerged as the primary beneficiaries of this shift. In the legal realm, Harvey and EvenUp raised hundreds of millions to automate complex litigation and contract work. In healthcare, startups like Hippocratic AI, Abridge, and OpenEvidence secured massive rounds to deploy AI agents capable of patient triage, clinical documentation, and medical research. This indicates a market maturity where investors are now betting on AI’s ability to navigate highly regulated, complex professional environments.
Parallel to the software boom is an insatiable demand for the infrastructure required to run it. The "picks and shovels" of the AI gold rush—companies that build the chips, inference engines, and data centers—are commanding multi-billion dollar valuations. Cerebras Systems raised $1.1 billion to challenge Nvidia’s hardware dominance, while Groq secured $750 million to speed up AI inference. This sector's growth is being fueled by a recognition that current hardware constraints are the primary bottleneck for future AI development, prompting investors to pour billions into alternative compute solutions.
A distinct phenomenon observed this year is the "double-dip" fundraise, where startups close two massive rounds within a single calendar year. Companies like Anysphere (the makers of the coding tool Cursor), Harvey, and OpenEvidence all returned to the market months after securing capital to raise again at significantly higher valuations. Anysphere, for example, saw its valuation skyrocket to $29.3 billion in November following a $2.3 billion injection. This velocity of capital suggests a "land grab" mentality, where leading startups are prioritizing war chests and market share over traditional growth timelines.
The coding and software development sector remains the crown jewel of productivity AI. Tools that act as "force multipliers" for software engineers have seen explosive growth. Beyond Anysphere’s massive success, Cognition AI—creator of the autonomous coding agent Devin—raised $400 million, and Magic (listed as "Anysphere" in the text, but distinct in the broader market context, likely referring to similar coding agent tools) continues to attract capital. Investors are betting heavily that AI will not just assist coders but fundamentally alter the economics of software production by acting as autonomous engineers.
The investor landscape has also solidified, with a mix of traditional venture capital and strategic corporate money driving these mega-rounds. While firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, and Kleiner Perkins remain ubiquitous, corporate giants like Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures are participating in nearly every major deal. This strategic entanglement ensures that the largest tech incumbents maintain influence over the disruptive startups that could one day unseat them. As 2025 draws to a close, the data points to an industry that is rapidly stratifying into three clear winners: those who own the models, those who build the chips, and those who own the vertical workflows.