AI Mad Lab

#interestingdata AI + 🇳🇴 = 💔? (ref. earlier AI + VC = ❤️ posts) As a superfan of @kjetil1 ‘s "On Norwegian Tech" (🙏) I eagerly await the annual review, published last week 👌 The 2024 review is solid as always w/most of the numbers as expected in “the VC trenches” 😜. The “horizontal segment chart” is still somewhat surprising 😳 as AI/ML investment accounted for ~14% of all 🇳🇴deals. Even with some labeling overlap w/HW and SaaS this is low relative to other markets. AI share of deal count elsewhere: · 🇪🇺: 23% (State of European Tech) · 🇺🇸: 25% (Pitchbook) · YC: 75% (Summer ’24 batch) AI is significantly more overrepresented in invested amounts elsewhere. I am an “AI bull” for multiple reasons: 1) AI’s potential to drive much needed societal productivity gains, 2) AI’s potential to solve fundamental problems and 3) the massive value potential and rapid change, make AI a great opportunity space for founders, startups and investors. It is natural to ask: What is going on in 🇳🇴? Are we just off/slower than others? The bad news – macro/top-down: I fear Norway is becoming a societal AI laggard driven by risk aversion and lack of curiosity/ambition. Too harsh? Maybe… My perspective is formed by the focus and quality of AI discussions in public, where the main topic has been the risk of students cheating using AI, rather than the opportunity presented by AI and how to reap benefits and stay competitive. Societal focus and ambitions create trickle-down effects on capital allocation, either directly thru investment objectives/strategies (e.g. government investment) or indirectly due to interest, awareness and effort. It’s time to step it up on AI 👆We can do it 🙌 The good news – micro/bottom-up: For founders and VCs it is all about micro, identifying great opportunities and investment time+capital to build/scale products and organizations to serve customers. While the Norwegian AI founder and investor community is limited, the commitment+skillset+ambition combo of the “hard core” is awesome 💪It’s a game of winners anyway, not volume. I’m stoked to work with some top founders and startups in this space and look forward to more. It’s great to see that the biggest “true VC round” in Kjetil’s 2024 review was in @1x_tech, a truly exceptional company and global leader in physical AI (and @AllianceVC investment). The snowball is rolling and will only get bigger. Kudos to all the AI founders giving their all and newcomers like @aimadlab, gunning to build a vibrant community of builders bottom-up 👊 mailchi.mp/holmefjord/on-nor… #VentureCapital #Startups #AI #Norway