US-based firms dominated the list of top ten venture capital (VC) investors in the artificial intelligence (AI) space by number of investments in 2020. Sequoia Capital managed to top the list as the firm participated in 52 VC funding rounds, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Of the list of 10 VC investors in the AI tech space, nine were headquartered in the US, while China-based Source Code Capital was the only non-American firm to feature in the list.

Sequoia Capital had the highest number of investments among all VC firms during 2020. The other US-based firms to feature among the top 10 included Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst Partners, M12, Accel, GV Management, Intel Capital Corp, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Traditionally, US-based VC investors have remained proactive in keeping an eye on investment opportunities in start-ups that are active in disruptive technologies, with AI being among them. The COVID-19 pandemic did not make much of a difference for these investors and they continued to make a sizeable number of investments, albeit with a cautious approach.”

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of these top 10 VC investors also witnessed growth in investment activity. Resultantly, the total volume and proportionate investment value of deals in the AI space involving these top 10 VC investors also grew by 10.6% and 34.8% in 2020 compared to 2019, respectively.

While the US firms dominated the list of top 10 VC investors, interestingly, Chinese firm, Source Code Capital, registered the highest growth in the number of investments, as well as proportionate investment value in 2020 compared to 2019.