Silicon Valley Powered American Tech Dominance—Now It Has a Challenger
An exclusive WSJ analysis shows how venture-capital investment from Asia is skyrocketing, threatening to shift power over innovation
Venture capital by place of origin, in billions
$67 $30 $38
US. Japan. China
Note: Bands represent the amount of investment led by investors of each country, ranked in order from the top for each year.
Source: WSJ analysis of VentureSource data
Silicon Valley, long the undisputed king of venture capital, is now sharing its throne with Asia.
A decade ago, nearly three-quarters of the world’s financing of innovative, tech-heavy startups and young companies took place in the U.S., with American investors plowing money into mostly U.S.-based venture firms.
Now, a surge of new money—mostly from China—has helped drive funding totals into the stratosphere and has transformed the venture landscape, according to an exclusive Wall Street Journal analysis of venture funding data.
Asian investors directed nearly as much money into startups last year as American investors did—40% of the record $154 billion in global venture financing versus 44%, the Journal’s analysis of data from private markets data tracker Dow Jones VentureSource found. Asia’s share is up from less than 5% just 10 years ago.
That tidal wave of cash into promising young firms could herald a shift in who controls the world’s technological innovation and its economic fruits, from artificial intelligence to self-driving cars.
Growing Competition
U.S. investors now lead less than half of all venture finance, while China's share is nearly a quarter and growing fast.
Venture capital by place of origin, share of total
U.S.
In 2017
China
44%
Japan
Mixed
Europe
In 1992
Other Asia
97%
Others
24%
12%
7.8%
7.1%
3.3%
1.8%
’05
’10
’15
2000
1995
Note: Bands represent the amount of investment led by investors of each country as a share of total, ranked in order from the top for each year.
Source: WSJ analysis of VentureSource data
Silicon Valley previously was far and away the leader for tech entrepreneurs in both money and know-how, says Kai-Fu Lee, a veteran tech executive who headed China units of Microsoft and Google before founding his own Beijing-based venture-capital firm, Sinovation Ventures, in 2009. The rise of China’s venture market “signifies a shift from a single-epicenter view of the world to a duopoly,” he says.
U.S. investors remain the biggest single source of global venture capital, and they do more deals than anyone else—nearly half of all venture rounds in 2017, according to VentureSource data. The U.S. is still an important driver of innovation, with many of China’s bigger investments merely copying American technologies. For startups, the big increase in Asian funds also makes more cash available to finance new technology.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/silico...tup-fundingnow-it-has-a-challenger-1523544804
An exclusive WSJ analysis shows how venture-capital investment from Asia is skyrocketing, threatening to shift power over innovation
Venture capital by place of origin, in billions
$67 $30 $38
US. Japan. China
Note: Bands represent the amount of investment led by investors of each country, ranked in order from the top for each year.
Source: WSJ analysis of VentureSource data
Silicon Valley, long the undisputed king of venture capital, is now sharing its throne with Asia.
A decade ago, nearly three-quarters of the world’s financing of innovative, tech-heavy startups and young companies took place in the U.S., with American investors plowing money into mostly U.S.-based venture firms.
Now, a surge of new money—mostly from China—has helped drive funding totals into the stratosphere and has transformed the venture landscape, according to an exclusive Wall Street Journal analysis of venture funding data.
Asian investors directed nearly as much money into startups last year as American investors did—40% of the record $154 billion in global venture financing versus 44%, the Journal’s analysis of data from private markets data tracker Dow Jones VentureSource found. Asia’s share is up from less than 5% just 10 years ago.
That tidal wave of cash into promising young firms could herald a shift in who controls the world’s technological innovation and its economic fruits, from artificial intelligence to self-driving cars.
Growing Competition
U.S. investors now lead less than half of all venture finance, while China's share is nearly a quarter and growing fast.
Venture capital by place of origin, share of total
U.S.
In 2017
China
44%
Japan
Mixed
Europe
In 1992
Other Asia
97%
Others
24%
12%
7.8%
7.1%
3.3%
1.8%
’05
’10
’15
2000
1995
Note: Bands represent the amount of investment led by investors of each country as a share of total, ranked in order from the top for each year.
Source: WSJ analysis of VentureSource data
Silicon Valley previously was far and away the leader for tech entrepreneurs in both money and know-how, says Kai-Fu Lee, a veteran tech executive who headed China units of Microsoft and Google before founding his own Beijing-based venture-capital firm, Sinovation Ventures, in 2009. The rise of China’s venture market “signifies a shift from a single-epicenter view of the world to a duopoly,” he says.
U.S. investors remain the biggest single source of global venture capital, and they do more deals than anyone else—nearly half of all venture rounds in 2017, according to VentureSource data. The U.S. is still an important driver of innovation, with many of China’s bigger investments merely copying American technologies. For startups, the big increase in Asian funds also makes more cash available to finance new technology.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/silico...tup-fundingnow-it-has-a-challenger-1523544804