VCs raise money the same way startups do, only with more regulation. For that bucket of money they likely presented a thesis for how they would used to invest in the ML/AI wave. Investors have rights if the money isn’t used they way they were told it would be.

VCs raise money from fund managers (sovereign wealth funds for example) who also present a thesis to their stakeholders for how the money will be managed.

Depends on the timing but I think VC focus on ML is a good indicator of where smart money thinks the money is going to be made. But there are a lot of people that catch a trend in the tail in, I don’t think we’ve gotten anywhere close to that for ML investments.