According to media reports, the Saudi Arabian government plans to invest $40 billion to enter the field of AI. This move will make it one of the largest investors in the global AI field, and also reflects the advanced and hot wave of AI investment. Meta, Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Tesla and Nvidia, these seven US tech giants with a total market value of up to $14 trillion (about 32% of the S&P 500 index), have already started the battle for the AI ​market, and it has now reached a white-hot stage.

According to related reports , the "Big Seven" invests up to $400 billion in AI and cloud infrastructure every year. These investments cover various fields from AI chips and large models to humanoid robots, autonomous driving, AI medical care, etc. The chip field is undoubtedly the most intensive place for war. Nvidia, which originally dominated the AI ​​chip market, is facing a collective siege from peers to customers. Tesla, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are following closely behind and accelerating the development of their own AI chips. Meta even recently closed its enterprise collaboration product Workplace to fully attack the metaverse and AI market.

AI investment is flowing from the basic layer to the application layer

Currently, the focus of AI investment is still on the basic technology (large model) and infrastructure level. 

Source：Dealroom.co

Although current AI investment is still concentrated in the basic layer, in the future investment will flow further to the application layer. The report points out that there are a lot of opportunities for AI applications, including healthcare, equipment, media, software cloud, climate, education, defense, mobile and manufacturing, and the economic potential of AI in these fields is as high as 50 trillion US dollars.

Source：Dealroom.co

The means of competition have shifted from mergers and acquisitions to venture capital

In the past, acquisitions and mergers were the main means for technology giants to compete in the AI ​​market, but as regulatory authorities have increasingly tightened their scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions, venture capital has become a new way for technology giants to compete. The report shows that in 2023, the "Big Seven" completed 7 acquisitions, but participated in 208 venture capital transactions.

Source：Dealroom.co

So far this year, the "Big Seven" have invested $24.8 billion in AI companies through venture capital activities. The most favored AI startups include OpenAI, Anthropic, Wayve and others.

Source：Dealroom.co

Today, in the once-every-twenty-year technological innovation cycle, technology giants are working hard to achieve their own innovative changes in order to survive in the market. Facts show that technology companies that choose to lie flat instead of participating in internal transformation are destined to be eliminated by the market. This fierce competition for AI territory deserves more attention.

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