If that introductory sentence sounds familiar, that's because it's the same storyline we reported for the first quarter, when OpenAI drove investment to stratospheric heights with the largest venture round of all time. Total investment for the second quarter of 2026 was comparatively lower, but still ranked as the second spendiest on record. Investors continued to pour huge sums into AI high-flyers, with a giant financing for Anthropic accounting for about half of the quarterly tally. Capital concentration was the name of the game. For both Q1 and Q2, historically high investment levels were the result of giant rounds, not increases in overall deal count. Deal count remained well below prior high marks for recent years, as charted below. Of course, the past few months were a blowout period for giant exits as well. SpaceX led in Q2 with the largest IPO of all time. It followed up with the acquisition of Cursor, which was a record-setting startup M&A deal. In addition, we saw a...
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