64% and Counting: America's Venture Capital Dominance
One of the most bracing presentations at DLD this year was given by Crunchbase's data queen Gene Teare. Breaking down America's VC dominance, Teare's speech might have been entitled "64% and Counting." As Teare told Keith and me in a special Teare family edition of our regular That Was The Week show, the VC gap between Europe and America is only getting wider. From 2014 to 2023, US share of global venture dipped below 50%. But in 2025, it roared back — with nearly two-thirds of all global VC flowing to America. The foundation model funding disparity tells the story: OpenAI raised $40 billion last year, Anthropic $17.5 billion. The top French AI company? $2 billion. Oh mon Dieu.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Jo-Ann Mort: How Poets Could Bring Peace to Israel and Palestine
Michael Blanding: Was Shakespeare a Plagiarist?
Charles Dellheim: How Jews Made the Art World Modern
Vegard Skirbekk: Why We Need to Bring Down Global Birth Dates and Have Fewer Children
Rowan Hooper: How to Save the World For Just a Trillion Dollars
Levi Vonk: The Moral Case for Demilitarizing the Southern Border
Nick Marx: Can Conservatives Be Funny?
Danica Roem: Why We Should Judge All Politicians Through the Prism of Authenticity
Sam W. Haynes: How Everyone—Left and Right—Has Misrepresented the History of Texas
Alice Sherwood: Should We Really Want to Reclaim "Reality" in Our Counterfeit World?
Tripp Mickle: How Apple Appears to Have Lost Its Soul in the Post-Steve Jobs Era
Scott Hershovitz: How to Nurture the Philosopher In All Our Kids
John A. List: Why Quitting Good Ideas Is Often a Winning Strategy