Global Startup Funding Hits Record $510B in H1 2026
Global venture funding reached a record $510 billion in the first half of 2026, surpassing the $440 billion invested in all of 2025 and setting a new high for startup investment in any half-year period on record, according to Crunchbase News.
Q2 2026 was the second-largest quarter on record for global venture investment. Investors poured $205 billion into more than 5,000 startups in Q2, following $305 billion invested in Q1.
Exits Reach Record Levels
IPOs and startup acquisitions accelerated alongside venture investment, producing the strongest exit market since the 2021 boom, Crunchbase data shows. The largest IPO ever for a venture-backed company and the largest startup acquisition ever both took place in Q2. Both deals involved SpaceX, as it went public at a value of $1.77 trillion, raising $75 billion, and confirmed its intent to acquire Anysphere for $60 billion.
A total of 32 companies went public at values above $1 billion in Q2. Twenty-four companies were acquired at prices at or above $1 billion in Q2, totaling $113 billion in value.
Capital Concentration in AI
OpenAI and Anthropic alone accounted for $217 billion, or 43% of all startup funding in H1. Close to a third of Q2 global venture funding went to Anthropic, which raised $65 billion last quarter.
The U.S. accounted for two-thirds of startup capital in Q2. More than 70% of global startup capital in Q2 was invested in AI-focused companies.
Megarounds and Stage Breakdowns
A total of 16 companies raised billion-dollar rounds in the quarter, totaling $108.6 billion, or 53% of second-quarter funding, according to Crunchbase News. Seven of those companies are frontier labs.
Late-stage venture funding totaled $134 billion in Q2. Early-stage funding showed growth in larger rounds, with 91 companies raising Series A and B rounds at $100 million. Global seed funding totaled $12 billion in Q2.
