Artificial intelligence has become the fastest-growing vertical in Spain’s tech sector. As the country experiences an expansion phase among companies dedicated to this technology, the investment ecosystem increasingly asks how many of these companies will manage to become sustainable businesses when the initial enthusiasm for AI wanes.
There is a concern about a possible bubble. The volume of capital mobilized around AI reflects the magnitude of the phenomenon. According to Stanford’s AI Index Report 2025, global private investment in generative AI reached $33.9 billion in 2024, up 18.7% from the previous year and more than eight times the level recorded in 2022. Investor interest persists, though the sector’s rapid rise requires a deeper analysis of each project and implies that some of the companies created during this cycle will struggle to consolidate.
Spain reflects that tension well: it appears among European countries with the highest activity in AI startup creation, though far from the major hubs like the United Kingdom, Germany, or France, according to the Stanford report. This means that the number of AI-driven companies is growing even as corporate adoption remains in an early stage. About 20% of the companies surveyed by the Bank of Spain already use these systems, and in many cases, their application remains experimental.
Tools that will endure and others that won’t
From BeHappy Investments, the social impact investment vehicle, they explain that “there is a market and there is interest. It remains to be seen which solutions can be integrated deeply enough into their clients to generate recurring revenue and build a lasting advantage when the technology normalizes.”
That will probably be one of the big filters in the coming years. During the first stage of the boom, it was sometimes enough to demonstrate that a technology could do something new. Now it starts to matter how much a process improves, how much a customer is willing to pay, and what capacity a company has to defend its position when competitors using similar tools appear.
The evolution of AI itself is accelerating this shift. Creating a technology product today requires less time and fewer resources than a few years ago. That ease has expanded the capacity to experiment and has also multiplied ‘side projects.’ “There are founders who test several ideas simultaneously, launch products in a matter of weeks, and rapidly switch markets when a proposal fails to gain traction. That speed can drive innovation, though it also introduces a key question for early-stage investors. To what extent is there real commitment to the company seeking funding,” notes Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Caveda, CEO of BeHappy Investments.
In a young startup, the team remains a fundamental part of the investment decision. When there is still little revenue and a limited track record, much of the thesis depends on the founder’s ability to devote years to solving the same problem. An excess of parallel projects can make it harder to interpret that commitment. The ease of building allows more ideas to be tested, but raising a company still requires focus and a willingness to stay when the initial novelty fades.
“The current market context obliges us to be increasingly selective. Technology enables building and testing ideas at enormous speed, but to invest we need to understand which problem truly deserves years of work, which team is committed to solving it, and which company can turn that initial advantage into a business with longevity,” reiterates Rodríguez Caveda.
Capital will have to choose better and accompany for longer
The potential excess of AI projects coexists with another reality. Companies that manage to demonstrate there is a business behind the technology will need increasing amounts of capital to compete.
This issue is especially important for Europe. Venture capital funding for artificial intelligence on the continent accounts for about 6% of the global total, according to the latest data from the European Commission’s Digital Decade reports, while even European firms that manage to grow remain exposed to ending up in foreign buyers’ hands due to a lack of funds capable of supporting them in later stages.
The issue directly affects the development of the Spanish ecosystem. Creating more startups increases the chances of finding projects capable of building relevant companies, but that business base will have little runway if the available capital disappears precisely when the best teams begin to need it to grow. Europe needs to attract more private investment and develop vehicles capable of taking larger checks for longer.
Spain has a clear opportunity to participate in this tech cycle. Growth over the past year shows that there is talent willing to build. The next step will be to ensure that enough of these companies move beyond the experimentation stage, secure capital to keep growing, and stay focused long enough to turn a good technological opportunity into a lasting company, BeHappy Investments concludes.
