Driven by investments in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, the European venture debt market has seen over €21 billion (approximately $24.4 billion) invested this year, according to PitchBook data. This figure is projected to reach a new annual high by year-end, representing about a 60% increase from last year. However, despite the rapid growth in deal value, the number of deals has significantly declined, with only 237 transactions completed so far this year, a sharp drop from 707 last year. Over 40% of the deal value is concentrated in the top five transactions, with AI startups such as French AI developer Mistral AI and AI computing provider Nscale receiving the majority of the funding, as their physical infrastructure can serve as collateral for financing.