Global venture funding reached a record 440 billion invested in all of 2025 and setting a new high for startup investment in any half-year period on record, Crunchbase data shows.
OpenAI and Anthropic alone accounted for $217 billion — 43% of all startup funding in H1 — underscoring how a small handful of frontier AI companies is reshaping venture markets.
Q2 2026 was the second-largest quarter on record for global venture investment. Investors poured 305 billion in Q1.
Exits Peak in Q2
The second quarter marked a turning point for liquidity. IPOs and startup acquisitions accelerated alongside venture investment, producing the strongest exit market since the 2021 boom.
The largest IPO ever for a venture-backed company and the largest startup acquisition ever both took place in Q2. Both involved SpaceX — public at 75B raised) and intent to acquire Anysphere (Cursor maker) for $60 billion.
Capital Concentration
Close to a third of Q2 global venture funding went to Anthropic ($65B round). Anthropic became most valuable private company on Crunchbase Unicorn Board.
Two-thirds of Q2 startup capital went to U.S.-based companies. More than 70% of global startup capital in Q2 was invested in AI-focused companies, up from just under 50% a year earlier.
16 companies raised billion-dollar rounds in Q2, totaling $108.6B (53% of Q2 funding). Seven are frontier labs including DeepSeek, StepFun, Moonshot AI, Ineffable Intelligence, Prometheus, and Isomorphic Labs.
Funding by Stage
- Late-stage: $134B in Q2, up 141% from Q2 2025
- Early-stage: 100M+ Series A/B rounds
- Seed: 2.8B to $100M+ seed rounds
Record Exits
32 companies went public at $1B+ in Q2. After SpaceX: Cerebras Systems, Quantinuum.
24 companies acquired at 113B — highest quarter on record.
Data as of July 1, 2026.