Circular relationships among AI firms

Jon Frost Rudraksh Kansal Kumar Rishabh
5 Authors
PDF (8 Pages)
Type
Publication
Series
BIS Bulletin 137
Date Published
01 October 2026

Key takeaways

  • Between 2021 and 2025, 28.7% of artificial intelligence (AI) firms’ investment deals (by deal value) involved a target company that was also an AI firm, while 55.2% of incoming investments in AI firms came from other AI firms.
  • Of all the AI-to-AI investment deals between 2021 and 2025, 16.1% (by deal count) and 46.4% (by deal value) also involved commercial supply chain relationships between the investor and target firms.
  • Circular investment relationships reflect key economic features such as the need to secure critical inputs and the presence of information asymmetries, yet they entail macroeconomic risks and increase opacity.
The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the BIS or its member central banks.
PDF (8 Pages)

Authors

Jon Frost
Jon Frost

Head of Innovation and the Digital Economy

Monetary and Economic Department
Rudraksh Kansal
Rudraksh Kansal

Financial Market Analyst

Monetary and Economic Department, Statistics and Administration
Kumar Rishabh

Technical Advisor

Monetary and Economic Department, Financial Stability Policy
Vatsala Shreeti
Vatsala Shreeti

Economist

Monetary and Economics Department, Economic Analysis
Leanne Si Ying Zhang
Leanne Si Ying Zhang

Visiting Economist

Monetary and Economic Department, Financial Stability Policy

Additional files

EXCEL
Data behind the graphs