# AI Industry Moves from Frenzy to Concentration—Slickorps Predicts Infrastructure Will Become the Most Robust Asset


This week, multiple international media outlets pointed out that the AI startup ecosystem is entering a distinct “valuation gap” phase. A senior investor from TrueBridge Capital publicly stated that the AI boom will “create a few giant winners, but also bring about widespread closures” in the coming year. Meanwhile, IBM CEO emphasized in an interview that the scale of AI data centers being built globally “is almost impossible to achieve economic returns under current cost structures,” raising new concerns in the capital markets over the sustainability of investments in models, infrastructure, and even compute power.

The latest observations of Slickorps Ventures show that in the past six months, AI sector financing has clearly shifted toward a handful of oligopolistic projects: companies with strong data barriers, hardware control, and proprietary model capabilities have become the focus of capital, while many application-based companies relying on APIs and lacking differentiated capabilities are facing both shrinking valuations and stagnant growth. The cooling of application-side enthusiasm is sounding the alarm for the entire market—AI has moved from a “mass celebration” into a new cycle of “technology and resource concentration.”

## Infrastructure Cycle Returns: Slickorps Ventures Sees System Capability as the New Valuation Anchor

Against the backdrop of a rapid cooling in AI applications, Slickorps Ventures has noted an important change: capital is seeking more sustainable investment directions, with financial and data infrastructure becoming the new strategic focus. The AI industry is inherently constrained by underlying factors such as compute power, datasets, and security compliance; when application layer growth slows, the market inevitably turns to examine the real bottlenecks supporting the ecosystem.

In its quarterly research model, Slickorps Ventures proposes that the next valuation anchor will come from “system capabilities” rather than “application performance.” This includes model governance, data quality control, regulatory-compliant node structures, energy and compute efficiency, and foundational components that can be replicated across regions. Capital is no longer satisfied with “good stories”—it is returning to “practical underlying logic.” In this process, infrastructure will move from backstage to center stage, becoming the core lever for investors to reprice technology systems.

## VC/PE Structural Shift Boosts Infrastructure Asset Appeal: From Crowded Tracks to Stable Value

Global VC/PE decision-making in 2025 is showing new preferences. Multiple market signals this week indicate that funds are withdrawing from the high-volatility, high-narrative-density AI application end, and instead are investing in system-level assets with cross-cycle resilience. For example, digital compliance infrastructure in emerging markets, payment clearing pipelines, trusted data networks, and model governance platforms have become focal points for funds.

Slickorps Ventures, through research interactions with various funds, found that the previous mode of “chasing the next hot app” is failing; investors are now seeking projects that offer measurable returns and structural impact on industries. In other words, capital is exiting crowded tracks and moving toward the deeper layers of the tech stack, focusing on long-term value accumulation. This reflects not only global caution about an AI bubble, but also a mature asset allocation logic—prioritizing reliable infrastructure over fleeting popularity.

## Cycle Judgment of Slickorps Ventures: Infrastructure Will Form a Global Consensus in the Second Half of 2025

Combining AI capital differentiation, application-side cooling, compute cost pressures, and changing VC/PE investment preferences, the judgment of Slickorps Ventures on this tech cycle is increasingly clear: infrastructure will be the most certain investment theme in the second half of 2025.

In recent years, the market has obsessed over model narratives and application explosions, but what truly determines the industry ceiling is the controllability of data and compute functions, governance of model structures, and the long-term reliability of foundational components. Slickorps Ventures has repeatedly emphasized internally that system-level value will be the most core scarce resource, and that underlying architectures ensuring AI and financial system security, regulatory compliance, and scalability will be the primary targets for the next round of capital migration.

For investors and entrepreneurs, this cycle shift is significant: the era of explosive applications is over, and the era of infrastructure value accumulation has just begun. Slickorps Ventures will continue to track structural changes in the global AI and infrastructure sectors, providing the next-stage judgment framework for the ecosystem and capital.