U.S. Overtakes China in AI Investments But The Asian Nation Remains Largest Single Market For Implementation: Study

The U.S. has now overtaken China as the biggest investor in Artificial Intelligence (AI) tech.

A study by tech advisory firm ABI Research showed that China still remains the largest single market for AI implementation.

Venture capital investments in U.S. AI firms have risen so much that the country is on course to claim 70% of global AI investments this year, the report noted.

In 2018, American AI startups received as much as US$9.7 billion in venture capital, an impressive 120% year-on-year increase. The research firm expects the figure to reach US$14 billion in 2019.

The top AI startups in the US include Cruise Automation, Dataminr and Zymergen.

“All these startups research on and invest in cutting edge, deep learning technologies in their solutions, democratizing AI for enterprises and end consumers,” said Lian Jye Su, Principal Analyst at ABI Research.

Most of the AI startups in the United States come from various sectors, including self-driving cars, industrial manufacturing, robotics process automation, data analytics, and cybersecurity.

China, by comparison, saw US$7.4 billion invested in AI in 2018. Its most successful AI startups are SenseTime, Yitu Technology, and CloudWalk.

While Chinese firms have cornered the domestic market, they are struggling to expand overseas. As hiring labors is not a challenge in China, many factories are not finding any need to automate their operations.

“As compared to the United States and Europe, where labor cost and skill shortage are key concerns, China continues to enjoy the benefits of an affordable labor force, especially in industrial manufacturing,” the report said.