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.

The second quarter alone saw $205 billion flow to more than 5,000 startups, making it the second-largest quarter on record after Q1's $305 billion. IPOs and acquisitions returned in force, producing the strongest exit market since the 2021 boom.

OpenAI and Anthropic captured $217 billion between them — 43% of all startup funding in H1. The concentration underscores how a small handful of frontier AI companies is reshaping venture markets at unprecedented scale.

Capital flows to megarounds

Anthropics raised $65 billion in Q2 alone, becoming the most valuable private company after SpaceX went public. The foundation lab now tops the Crunchbase Unicorn Board, surpassing OpenAI on the leaderboard.

Sixteen companies raised billion-dollar rounds in Q2, totaling $108.6 billion or 53% of the quarter's funding. Seven of those were frontier labs, including China-based DeepSeek, StepFun and Moonshot AI, plus U.K.-based Ineffable Intelligence.

More than 70% of global startup capital in Q2 went to AI-focused companies, up from just under 50% a year earlier. The U.S. dominated with two-thirds of startup capital, down from 83% in Q1.

Exit market rebounds

The quarter marked a turning point for liquidity. SpaceX completed the largest IPO ever for a venture-backed company at a $1.77 trillion valuation, raising $75 billion. Less than a week later, it confirmed plans to acquire Cursor maker Anysphere for $60 billion — the largest startup acquisition on record.

The exit activity signals that the AI investment boom has grown well beyond select foundation labs, with record deals spanning AI infrastructure, defense, robotics and healthcare.

The first half of 2026 topped the previous half-year peak of $375 billion reached in H2 2021, cementing a new venture cycle shaped by artificial intelligence.