Every end user for your .ai domain name may not be looking to pay you that lotto winning price. TechCrunch published a piece today on how investors in AI are getting a tad weary. For those setting 6 and 7 figure price tags for their .ai domain names, this is worth reading.
From the article:
A new report from Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), which studies AI trends, found that global investment in AI fell for the second year in a row in 2023.
Both private investment — that is, investments in startups from VCs — and corporate investment — mergers and acquisitions — in the AI industry were on the downswing in 2023 versus the year prior, according to the report, which cites data from market intelligence firm Quid.
AI-related mergers and acquisitions fell from $117.16 million in 2022 to $80.61 million in 2023, down 31.2%; private investment dipped from $103.4 million to $95.99 million. Factoring in minority stake deals and public offerings, total investment in AI dropped to $189.2 billion last year, a 20% decline compared to 2022.
The article goes on to say:
Aaron Fleishman, a partner at Tola Capital, says that investors might be coming to the realization that they’ve been too reliant on “projected exponential growth” to justify AI startups’ sky-high valuations. To give one example, AI company Stability AI, which was valued at over $1 billion in late 2022, reportedly brought in just $11 million in revenue in 2023 while spending $153 million on operating expenses.
Now to be fair deals are getting done but being spread out more. So there might not be that appetite to pay you $9M for your LL.ai. I still like the niche but it’s important to know what’s going on with the people you hope ultimately buy your domain names.
