New Delhi, Dec 20 : While other markets saw a significant downturn in fundraising, AI companies have raised nearly $50 billion this year to date, the second highest figure in the market's history, a new report revealed on Wednesday. According to data presented by AltIndex.com, the global AI industry has more than doubled in just three years, reaching a $240 billion value and a quarter of a billion users worldwide. "This impressive growth has drawn a lot of attention from VC investors who poured billions of dollars into AI companies and startups. Despite the overall VC funding slowdown, the strong fundraising activity continued this year, tuning 2023 into the second-best year for fundraising in the AI market's history after 2021," the report said. According to Crunchbase data, AI companies and startups raised $78.5 billion that year alone, more than double the amount seen in 2020. Following a spectacular 2021, fundraising activity fell by 42 per cent (year-over-year), yet AI startups still collected a whopping $45.2 billion in 2022. However, statistics revealed that 2023 was even more successful, with organisations and startups in this field raising $4.5 billion more than last year or $49.8 billion in total. Nearly 60 per cent of the total value, or $28.8 billion, was raised in the first half of the year, a 4 per cent drop from the same period the previous year, the report mentioned. However, fundraising activity increased dramatically in the year's second half, with AI businesses raising an additional $20.9 billion in funding rounds, over 40 per cent more than in H2 2022, it added. With nearly $50bn raised in funding rounds this year, the cumulative funding amount in the AI space has climbed to an impressive $333 billion. /IANS