If you want to know what the next big fat techo-financial fad is, just look at the 150 per cent jump of BuzzFeed’s stock when the listicle-monger said that “AI inspired content” would become “part of our core business”. This is like manna from the sky for the venture capital industry, which desperately needs to find a new The Current Thing to get excited about — and, more importantly, excite investors.

At the height of the market frenzy in 2021, VC firms smashed every record by exiting $730bn across nearly 1,000 unicorns, allowing venture funds to raise another $130bn of capital.

Fast forward to today, and while VC firms are sitting on nearly $300bn of dry powder, it appears that the factors that produced the past decade’s smashing returns are now absent. The tide has definitely gone out.