The first quarter of 2026 was unlike any other for venture investment, driven by unprecedented spending on AI compute and frontier labs. 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows investors poured $300 billion into 6,000 startups globally in the quarter, up over 150% quarter over quarter and year over year.

That marks an all-time high for global venture investment not approached by any other quarter on record. In fact, startup investment in the first quarter of 2026 alone totaled close to 70% of all venture capital spending in 2025. The quarterly sum also tops all full-year investment totals prior to 2018.

Q1’s startup investment largely went to AI startups and disproportionately to a handful of U.S.-based companies in record-setting deals. Four of the five largest venture rounds ever recorded were closed in Q1 2026, with frontier labs ($122 billion), ($30 billion), ($20 billion) and self-driving company ($16 billion) collectively raising $188 billion, or 65% of global venture investment in the quarter.

Overall, AI shattered records last quarter, with $242 billion 鈥� 80% of total global venture funding in Q1鈥� going to companies in the sector. The previous record was set in Q1 2025, when AI accounted for 55% of global venture funding.

Table of Contents

• Valuation surge, capital concentration
• US above 80%
• Late-stage hike
• Early stage up over 40%
• Seed funding up over 30%
• IPO slowdown, M&A pick up
• Public pressure
• Methodology
• Glossary of funding terms

Valuation surge, capital concentration

Along with the three major frontier labs and Waymo, another 10 companies raised funding rounds of $1 billion or more in Q1, in sectors spanning generative and physical AI, autonomous vehicles, semiconductors, data centers, robotics, defense and prediction markets.

Those outsized rounds pushed overall startup valuations higher in Q1. The 小蓝视频色情网页版 Unicorn Board added $900 billion in value during the quarter, marking the largest valuation bump in a single quarter.

US above 80%

U.S.-based companies raised $250 billion, or 83% of global venture capital in Q1, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. That鈥檚 up significantly from 71% in Q1 2025, which was already well above historical averages in the decade before 2024.

The second-largest market globally for venture funding in Q1 was China, with $16.1 billion invested. The U.K. followed, with $7.4 billion invested. Both countries were up quarter over quarter and even more significantly year over year.

Late-stage hike

The Q1 funding surge was concentrated in late-stage funding, which reached $246.6 billion 鈥� up 205% year over year 鈥� across 584 deals. A total of $235 billion was invested in 158 late-stage companies that raised rounds of $100 million and more.

Early stage up over 40%

Early-stage funding totaled $41.3 billion across 1,800 deals, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows.

Funding was up marginally quarter over quarter but up 41% year over year from $29.4 billion. Much of that increase went to Series A rounds, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. Series B deals were down quarter over quarter but still up year over year.

Seed funding up over 30%

Seed funding totaled $12 billion, up 31% year over year, though the increase was entirely due to larger rounds, with deal counts falling 30% year over year to 3,800.

IPO slowdown, M&A pick up

Record venture investment in U.S. companies did not translate into a stronger IPO market in Q1.

In fact, the U.S. market for new listings slowed in Q1 amid a broader stock market selloff in software, although China鈥檚 IPO market picked up.

A total of 21 venture-backed companies exited globally above $1 billion in Q1. Thirteen of those were from China, four more from elsewhere in Asia, and four from the U.S.

The largest IPO in Q1 was Japan-based , a fintech for mobile payments valued at $10 billion upon listing.听 Two foundation lab companies from China 鈥� and 鈥� debuted on the , each valued at more than $6 billion.

While the IPO market was somewhat lackluster, startup M&A was strong in Q1 with exits cumulatively valued north of $56.6 billion, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. That marked the third-highest startup M&A quarter since the downturn of 2022.

The largest M&A deals in Q1 were 鈥檚 $6 billion planned acquisition of 鈥檚 gaming platform , and 鈥檚 planned $5.15 billion acquisition of fintech startup .

Public pressure

While frontier lab megarounds defined Q1 2026, a closer look at the data shows every startup funding stage grew last quarter, as did round sizes across the board.

And unlike the cloud and mobile era, this cycle is also being built in the physical world, with massive capital flowing not just into software, but infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, robotics and manufacturing.

Now, with startup valuations surging and a backlog of companies with unprecedented sums of private capital behind them, pressure is intensifying on the IPO markets to reopen in 2026.

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Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from 小蓝视频色情网页版, and is based on reported data. Data is as of March 31, 2026.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. 小蓝视频色情网页版 converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to 小蓝视频色情网页版 long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. 小蓝视频色情网页版 also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. 小蓝视频色情网页版 includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

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OpenAI has already made six acquisitions in 2026, nearly as many as it made in all of 2025, according to 小蓝视频色情网页版 . Its latest purchase took place on March 19, when it announced plans to , a creator of open-source tools for software developers. This month, it also snapped up , an open-source tool for testing AI applications.

Overall, the San Francisco-based company has acquired 17 companies in the past three years, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. Eight of those purchases were made in 2025, although it didn鈥檛 even start making acquisitions until April last year.

By contrast, OpenAI only acquired two companies in 2024: and , and one company in 2023: .

The company seems to be continuing its acquisitive streak this year. It announced three acquisitions in January alone, setting the tone for what appears likely to be a busy M&A year. In January, it acquired:

• , a consulting firm providing custom AI 鈥渟olutions鈥� and specializing in GenAI, predictive analytics and strategy.
• , an AI-powered health app that aims to unify scattered medical records from hospitals, labs, wearables and consumers.
• , which provides LaTeX editing, error detection and team collaboration.

In February, OpenAI participated in an deal involving open-source AI agent and its creator, .

Historically, OpenAI hasn鈥檛 disclosed the purchase price for most of its acquisitions. The most expensive deal 鈥� at least among transactions for which a sales price was revealed 鈥� was its May 2025 acquisition of . OpenAI paid $6.5 billion for the then 1-year-old startup, which developed AI-powered devices.

However, not all of OpenAI鈥檚 proposed acquisitions have worked out. Last July, news broke that its planned $3 billion purchase of Windsurf had fallen apart.

Cash considerations

Certainly, OpenAI has deep pockets with which to buy companies despite reportedly being wildly unprofitable. In late February, the company announced it had closed a staggering $110 billion fundraising round at an $840 billion post-money valuation. The financing marked the largest startup funding deal ever, according to . OpenAI鈥檚 investors involve a diverse bunch, including , , , ,, and .

Still, despite all that funding, according to a report from , projects that OpenAI鈥檚 cumulative free cash flow by 2030 will still be in the red, leaving 鈥渁 $207 billion funding shortfall that must be filled through additional debt, equity, or more aggressive revenue generation.鈥嬧��

Startup M&A overall

OpenAI鈥檚 biggest rival, , has been far less acquisitive. So far this year, it has made only one known purchase, buying , a 2-year-old software development startup. In 2025, Anthropic made two known acquisitions: , an LLM evaluation platform for enterprises, and , a JavaScript runtime for developing and managing web applications.

Overall startup M&A dealmaking has been fairly robust so far this year, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows. This includes two deals in the multiple billions: 鈥檚 $5.15 billion purchase of and s $2.4 billion acquisition of . The AI sector鈥檚 appetite for acqui-hires and smaller purchases of earlier-stage startups also continues to boost momentum.

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Some are longstanding blue chip tech and pharmaceutical companies. Others are fast-growing venture-backed unicorns. And still others are more recent public market entrants looking to stay competitive in the age of AI.

To get a sense of who鈥檚 buying in bulk, we used 小蓝视频色情网页版 data to put together a that acquired three or more seed- or venture-backed startups in the past three years. From there, we picked the most acquisitive names.

The most prolific startup acquirers of the past 3 years

Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, the most prolific acquirers of seed- and venture-backed startups in recent years are 1, and . Overall, our query showed six companies with six or more known purchases, charted below.

For top-ranked Salesforce, high-volume M&A is nothing new. The San Francisco software giant has purchased at least 91 companies in the past 20 years, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. Its most recent startup purchases include , a revenue orchestration platform, and , which focuses on agentic AI for e-commerce.

OpenAI, by contrast, has a shorter track record of M&A shopping sprees. The pioneering generative AI company has bought 16 companies in the past three years. Among the most recent was an deal involving open-source AI agent and its creator, . This month, it also snapped up , a creator of open source tools for software developers, and , an open-source tool for testing AI applications.

Snowflake, meanwhile, has 19 acquisitions to date. Most recently, it acquired , a developer of AI observability tools that previously raised more than $460 million in venture funding.

Notably, recent the active acquirers list for recent years looks quite a bit different that the ranking of all-time top M&A dealmakers in the 小蓝视频色情网页版 dataset, shown below:

Highest-spending acquirers

The most prolific startup buyers also aren鈥檛 always the biggest check-writers. By the latter metric, the far-and-away leader is , and its $32 billion acquisition of .

For a broader picture view, we used 小蓝视频色情网页版 data to put together a list of six companies that made the biggest-ticket funded startup acquisitions of the past three years.

2026 off to a promising start

So far this year, it looks like the pace of startup M&A dealmaking remains fairly robust.

This includes two deals in the multiple billions: 鈥檚 $5.15 billion purchase of and s $2.4 billion acquisition of . The AI sector鈥檚 appetite for acqui-hires and smaller purchases of earlier-stage startups also continues to boost momentum.

We鈥檒l see if it keeps up.

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• Small And Mid-Sized Startup Purchases Are Still Well Below The 2021 Peak
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These in-between exits don鈥檛 generate a lot of buzz, but collectively they add up to a tidy sum. Last year, for instance, U.S. startup purchases under $300 million听1 brought in about $8.7 billion altogether, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows.

These small and mid-sized deals are not a long-term growth area for M&A, by many measures. The total deal value of purchases between $100 million and $300 million last year was still below levels routinely reached nearly a decade ago, as charted below.

Moreover, the total value can add up to just a fraction of a single, larger exit. 鈥檚 $32 billion purchase of , for instance, is worth more than 4x all these sub-$300 million deals put together.

Even so, we鈥檙e up from prior lows. Startup purchases in this range hit a low point a couple years ago and have rebounded since, with this year off to a brisk start as well.

Smaller deals shrink more

Smaller disclosed-price acquisitions of under $100 million are also well below peak. The volume and value of these deals hit a low in 2024 and has made somewhat of a comeback since, as charted below.

These sub-$100 million purchases are a mixed bag for returns. Investors might recoup solid profits from companies that raised a few million in seed funding and sold for prices in the tens of millions.

In other cases, startups sold for considerably less than the sums they raised in venture investment. Using 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, we aggregated a few examples of such deals from the past year. It includes companies with known struggles, such as , which filed for bankruptcy before selling to an acquirer this month.

No power buyers

Notably, there is no 鈥減ower acquirer鈥� for small and mid-sized startup purchases. Out of 181 sub-$300 million startup acquisitions since 2024 there was no buyer with more than two such deals, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

That said, there are companies with a larger number of funded startup purchases, just without reported prices for all or most. Examples include , , , , , and , among others.

When price isn鈥檛 disclosed, it鈥檚 hard to gauge how founders and investors fared on the deal. That said, most of the more active buyers can certainly afford to pay well. Whether they choose to do so is another matter.

*This is only disclosed-price purchases. Most startup acquisitions do not have a disclosed price.

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A host of interesting, under-the-radar recently funded startups caught our attention in the past month, including one that鈥檚 developing nuclear-waste generated electricity on the moon, another that aims to use AI to extract business intelligence from enterprise contracts, and a shoebox-picking warehouse robot. Let鈥檚 take a closer look.

$55M to turn contracts into business intelligence

AI-driven contract intelligence platform said last month that it raised $55 million in a Series B round led by existing investor , with participation from , , and .

The funding for the San Francisco-based company comes amid record-breaking funding for legal tech startups, particularly those that apply AI-driven automation to the notoriously paperwork-heavy profession. All told, venture funding to legal tech startups in 2025 nearly doubled year over year to more than $4 billion, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

Ivo itself has now raised $77.2 million from investors, . Its latest funding comes as in-house legal teams face mounting pressure from rising contract volumes and growing compliance demands.

Even as contracts increasingly serve as the backbone of revenue, vendor relationships and risk management, much of the data inside those agreements remains locked in PDFs and legacy systems, which are difficult to search or analyze without manual review.

Ivo鈥檚 platform automates contract review and transforms agreements into structured, searchable data. Its review product uses lawyer-built playbooks to standardize positions and flag deviations, with customers reporting time savings of up to 75% compared to manual review, per the company. Its intelligence layer also reportedly allows teams to surface obligations, renewal terms and risk exposure across entire contract libraries in seconds.

Since its previous funding round, Ivo says it has grown annual recurring revenue by 500%, increased its total customer count by 134%, and expanded adoption within the Fortune 500 by 250%. Its customers include , , , and .

鈥淥ur goal has always been to make interacting with contracts fast, accurate, and enjoyable,鈥� CEO and co-founder said in a statement. 鈥淓very key relationship in a business is defined by an agreement, yet most organizations struggle to extract the insights inside them. Our focus is to give in-house teams a trustworthy solution that helps them work faster and gives them visibility into their contracts that was previously impossible.鈥�

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$10M for warehouse robots, including one that picks shoeboxes

Amid record robotics investment, we perhaps shouldn鈥檛 be too surprised to see some very specialized bots get funding.

One is from , a Polish warehouse robotics company that last month raised a $10 million Series B extension led by . Along with its new funding, the Warsaw-based company unveiled its Shoebox Picker robot, designed to 鈥渞eliably pick two-piece, unsealed shoeboxes.鈥� That might sound like a niche task, but the company said shoeboxes account for up to 20% of SKUs in U.S. fashion e-commerce, yet have long resisted automation.

The Shoebox Picker can pick up to 450 units per hour when it鈥檚 only handling shoeboxes, and up to 600 units per hour for mixed bins, per the company. It can handle more than 98% of the shoeboxes on the market, according to Nomagic.

Nomagic鈥檚 vision is 鈥渢o bring physical AI into the heart of warehouse and logistics operations, where intelligent, autonomous systems can finally bridge the gap between digital optimization and real鈥憌orld execution,鈥� CEO and co-founder said in the funding announcement.

The company was founded in 2017 and has raised $84.6 million to date, .

Venture funding to robotics-related startups overall totaled nearly $14 billion last year, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. That鈥檚 a 70% increase over 2024 and eclipses even the peak funding year of 2021.

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$5M to replace synthetic dyes with plant-based alternatives

, a startup developing plant-based color technology, raised $5 million in a pre-Series A round led by 鈥� Blue Ocean 2 fund, with participation from and .

The Cambridge, U.K.-based startup is tackling one of the fashion and chemical industries鈥� dirtiest secrets: synthetic dyes. An stems from textile dyeing and fabric finishing treatments.

Sparxell鈥檚 funding seems timely, as regulators globally are tightening scrutiny of chemical substances. The has with restrictions on intentionally added microplastics, and policymakers are weighing broader bans on PFAS 鈥渇orever chemicals.鈥� In the U.S., the has also been in food and consumer products.

Spun out of the , Sparxell aims to replace petroleum-based pigments and heavy metals with wood pulp-derived coloring. The company says that arranging cellulose crystals to reflect specific wavelengths of light produces 100% plant-based pigments, glitters and inks designed as direct replacements for conventional dyes.

The startup says its process can cut water use by up to 90% compared to traditional dyeing methods and eliminate microplastics and toxic runoff. Unlike synthetic dyes, Sparxell鈥檚 cellulose-based pigments are also biodegradable, per the company.

鈥淥ur technology isn’t just an alternative 鈥� it is here to stay because it delivers superior performance due to its nature-inspired features. This funding takes us from proof of concept to production and commercial launches,鈥� CEO and founder said in a statement. 鈥淲e’re at an inflexion point. Brands are under pressure to eliminate synthetic toxins from their supply chains.鈥�

Founded in 2022, Sparxell has now raised $10.2 million, . The new funding will help it scale from pilot projects to tonne-scale manufacturing by 2026, per the company.

Apparel-related venture funding totaled about $1.5 billion globally last year and in 2024, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, down significantly from the peak year of 2021 when it totaled $9.2 billion.

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$2.6M for AI-driven M&A deal-sourcing

Singapore-based , an M&A sourcing platform for corporations and high-growth startups, recently raised $2.6 million in a funding round led by , with participation from angel investors.

The startup is targeting one of the most relationship-driven corners of corporate strategy: deal origination. While acquisitions have become a key growth lever for companies of all sizes, sourcing targets, especially in the mid-market and sub-$70 million range, remains slow, opaque and heavily dependent on banker networks and in-market listings.

GrowthPal says its AI-driven platform acts as an 鈥淢&A copilot鈥� that translates a buyer鈥檚 strategic objective 鈥� say, entering a new geography or acquiring a specific capability 鈥� into a structured acquisition thesis. AI agents then scan a database of more than 4 million technology companies, analyzing signals including hiring trends, funding history, web activity and public filings to surface high-fit, often off-market targets.

鈥淢&A sourcing is where most time and effort is wasted, especially for smaller and mid-market deals,鈥� , co-founder and CEO of GrowthPal, said in a statement. 鈥淭eams spend weeks researching, filtering, and chasing opportunities that never go anywhere. We built GrowthPal to help buyers focus only on high-intent, high-fit targets and move from mandate to meaningful conversations far faster.鈥�

GrowthPal, which has raised $4 million total, , says it has already supported 42 completed transactions and facilitated more than 210 letter-of-intent-stage conversations across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Its clients reportedly span large enterprises, PE-backed firms and growth-stage startups across SaaS, fintech, IT services and other sectors.

In one case, the company says, a single client closed seven acquisitions in 18 months using the platform.

Its funding seems prescient: There were more than 2,300 M&A deals globally involving venture-backed startups last year, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, up only slightly from the year prior, but insiders who spoke with 小蓝视频色情网页版 News said they expect strategic acquisitions for talent and technology to surge this year.

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$411K to generate energy on the moon

Talk about a moonshot.

, a Latvia-based startup, this month said it has raised 鈧�350,000, or about $411,000, in pre-seed funding to generate electricity on the moon.

The company said the funding was led by and angel investor . Along with the equity round, Deep Space says it secured another 鈧�580,000 (about $682,000) in public contracts and grants by the , and the Latvian government.

The company aims to develop a novel generator based on radioisotopes 鈥斕齧aterials derived from nuclear waste that generate energy through natural decay 鈥斕齮o power moon surface exploration and for military satellite reconnaissance.

鈥淥ur technology, which has already been validated in the laboratory, has several applications across the defence and space sectors,鈥� Deep Space CEO and founder said in a statement. 鈥淔irst, we鈥檙e developing an auxiliary energy source to enhance the resilience of strategic satellites. It provides the redundancy of satellite power systems by supplying backup power that does not depend on solar energy, making it crucial for high-value military reconnaissance assets.鈥�

艩膷epanskis noted in the statement that while Deep Space鈥檚 technology wouldn鈥檛 be used for weaponry, the Russia-Ukraine war was a motivating factor for its development. That became even clearer last year, when Ukraine lost its beachhead in Russia鈥檚 Kursk Oblast as the U.S. .

鈥淎s Europe is trying to become more independent, it is imperative to produce satellites with advanced capabilities on our own,鈥� 艩膷epanskis said. 鈥淥ur technology provides an auxiliary energy source for satellites, which makes them more resilient to non-kinetic attacks and malfunctions.鈥�

Venture funding to space- and defense-related technologies, which often overlap, soared last year. Global funding to space tech totaled $14.2 billion in 2025 鈥� more than double the annual totals in 2023 and 2024 鈥� per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data. Funding recipients included a mix of defense tech, satellite and rocket developers, and startups finding innovative use cases for geospatial data.

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Over the past two calendar years, acquirers have agreed to pay more than $38 billion to purchase听1 venture-backed companies in 小蓝视频色情网页版 biotech industry categories. So far, 2026 is off to a brisk start as well, with this month to pay up to $2.4 billion for , a startup focused on engineering immune cells in vivo.

Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, 2025 and 2024 were two of the strongest years on record for biotech M&A. While we鈥檙e still below the 2021 peak, we鈥檙e also well past the subsequent low point, as charted below.

Largest deals in recent quarters

Since last year, at least nine funded U.S. biotech companies have sold in transactions valued at $1 billion or more, including potential milestone payments. Using 小蓝视频色情网页版 , we assembled a list, ranked by deal size.

The largest deal was 鈥檚 purchase of , a developer of targeted oral therapies for solid tumors, for $3.05 billion in cash late last year. The pharma giant expressed particular interest in adding Halda鈥檚 clinical stage oral therapy for prostate cancer to its portfolio.

The two next-biggest acquisitions were both in the area of in vivo therapeutics, which enable a patient鈥檚 own body to generate cell therapies that can treat underlying disease.

One was Lilly鈥檚 aforementioned purchase of Watertown, Massachusetts-based Orna, which had听 previously raised over $320 million in venture funding from lead backers including , and .

The other was 鈥檚 mid-2025 acquisition of , a clinical-stage biotech developing targeted in vivo RNA technologies, with an initial focus on autoimmune diseases. AbbVie agreed to pay up to $2.1 billion in cash to acquire the San Diego-based startup,which previously raised $340 million in venture funding.

Biotech funding share slides, and IPO volume remains weak

While some large acquisitions are happening, the overall picture for biotech funding and exit activity looks more muted.

Last year, less than 9% of all U.S. startup funding went to companies in 小蓝视频色情网页版 biotech categories. That鈥檚 the lowest share in years, and largely a function of more capital going to companies in other hot sectors like generative AI.

In terms of total finding, biotech looks more stable. In 2025, just over $25 billion went to U.S. startups in the space, roughly flat year over year.

IPO activity is lower than usual. Last year, just 21 biotech, pharma or medical device companies went public, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, the lowest number in years.

So far this year, we鈥檝e had four debuts, including most recently the debut this month of , a developer of cancer therapies recently valued around $900 million.

Not a slump, and not a boom

Overall, biotech funding and exit data paints a picture of a sector that鈥檚 neither booming nor in a protracted slump. That鈥檚 not the most exciting place to be, but it can be quite viable for quite a long time.

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They鈥檙e not afraid to write big checks either. The latest evidence of this was a $450 million Series A that Livermore, California-based fusion power startup Wednesday.

led the round for the 2-year-old company, joined by , and other backers. Inertia plans to use the funds toward a fusion pilot at , which will involve building the world鈥檚 most powerful laser and a production line to mass manufacture .

The financing is the latest in a string of recent, very large deals around both fusion and nuclear fission. Per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data, both funding and deal volume for the space hit a high last year, and 2026 is off to a promising start as well.

Headline deals, leading fundraisers

It鈥檚 mostly funding announcements, but not exclusively. On the fusion front, the highest profile recently proposed deal was 鈥檚 surprising announcement in December that it plans to combine with fusion company in what TMTG called a stock transaction valued at more than $6 billion.

The deal is a long time coming for TAE, which was founded in 1998 and is the oldest operating venture-backed fusion energy company in the 小蓝视频色情网页版 dataset. The company has seen at least $1.5 billion in prior known funding to date.

Other fusion companies have also been prodigious fundraisers. The leader is , with $2.86 billion in equity funding, while other standouts include ($1 billion), ($900 million) and ($357 million).

Nuclear fission is another hot area for investment, with over $2.5 billion in funding last year, per 小蓝视频色情网页版. The largest deal was a $700 million Series D in late November for , a developer of advanced nuclear reactor and fuel technology.

Activity looks to be accelerating further this year, with more than $270 million in funding, including a $140 million round two weeks ago for Tennessee-based , which manufactures advanced nuclear fuel for new reactors.

Public markets too

Public investors also appear receptive. , which develops nuclear reactors, went public in 2024 through a merger with a SPAC launched by . It鈥檚 down quite a bit from the height scaled late last year, but still had a recent market cap around $10 billion.

Other SPAC deals have also popped up, including , which wants to develop energy parks with small modular reactors to meet data center demand, and , a developer of light-water micro-modular reactors. Meanwhile , a developer of small modular nuclear plants, completed a SPAC merger in October.

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• A Little Background On Fusion Funding And TAE Technologies, The Company Merging With Trump Media
• Fusion Startup Helion Powers Up With $425M Series F
• Nuclear Fission Shows Continuing Popularity (With VCs, At Least)
• Cleantech鈥檚 Rough Year Ends On An Up Note
• Bill Gates-Founded Nuclear Energy Startup Raises $650M From Nvidia鈥檚 VC Arm, Others
• Fusion Funding Has Fizzled

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Today, it wouldn鈥檛 even be enough to buy one, if it was the newly combined and , now valuing itself at $1.25 trillion. It would also fall short for purchasing both of the next two 鈥� and 鈥� at post-money valuations they鈥檙e reportedly seeking.

So how much would it take to buy the top 100 at current valuations? About $3.5 trillion, according to an estimate from private share marketplace . 2

Call it the age of valuation escalation. Leading startups, traditionally known for their skill in growing businesses, are now demonstrating a similar mastery of scaling how much they鈥檙e worth.

It鈥檚 not exactly a new phenomenon, as top venture-backed companies have a long history of securing significant up rounds. What鈥檚 remarkable about the current era, of course, is the sheer size of the valuations.

The past couple months have offered a particularly fast-moving blur of听 reported valuation gains we thought might warrant a summary.

To illustrate, we鈥檙e highlighting gains in two categories: companies valued at $100 billion-plus (the biggest unicorns)听 and those valued at between $20 billion and $100 billion (the next-biggest unicorns). Both are seeing some big swings up and to the right.

The biggest unicorns

We鈥檒l start with the biggest recent upward moves at the most highly valued U.S. companies, in order of valuation:

: SpaceX acquired 鈥檚 xAI last week in a that will reportedly value the combined company at $1.25 trillion. The deal comes in advance of an anticipated IPO later this year.

: The generative AI giant is reportedly in to raise $100 billion in fresh funding at a valuation of $750 billion or more. In October, the company at a $500 billion valuation.

: The Claude chatbot developer and OpenAI rival has reportedly at least $10 billion for a new financing at a $350 billion valuation this year, and is said to be likely to a total of more than $20 billion.

: The AI and data unicorn Monday that it has raised at a $134 billion valuation. The latest financing includes $5 billion in equity investment and $2 billion in debt funding. The company also said it crossed a $5.4 billion annual revenue run-rate.

: The autonomous driving company raised $16 billion in last week at a $126 billion post-money valuation.

: The payments platform a tender offer a year ago at a $91.5 billion valuation. It鈥檚 unclear what its most recent valuation would be, although market trends indicate it would likely be higher.

The next-biggest unicorns

: The blockchain and cryptocurrency company had a $40 billion valuation a in November.

: The developer of general-purpose humanoid robots a $39 billion post-money valuation for its last financing, a .

: The AI financing automation platform was at $32 billion in November, up from $22.5 billion just a few months earlier.

: The AI startup was at $32 billion as part of a in April.

: The defense tech unicorn secured at a $30.5 billion valuation in June.

: The AI processor developer picked up a round last week that听 set a post-money valuation for the company of approximately $23 billion.

: The crypto exchange was reportedly around $20 billion after a funding round in November.

: The company known for its Cursor AI coding platform announced in November that it raised $2.3 billion in Series D funding at a $29.3 billion post-money valuation.

Gains are quite recent

Looking at the companies in both the biggest unicorns and next-biggest unicorns categories, what鈥檚 striking, in addition to the huge valuations, is how recently so many of these companies set or secured these high numbers.

Just over a year ago, SpaceX鈥檚 valuation hit $350 billion following a closely watched secondary share sale. That was considered quite high at the time.

And just 14 months ago, OpenAI鈥檚 valuation was . It was also considered quite high. Go figure.

What鈥檚 also noteworthy is that many of the next-biggest-unicorns secured their highest valuations to date in the last couple months of last year. That was prime-time for valuation escalation, perhaps in anticipation of an opening IPO window and growing investor consensus regarding early leaders in hot, emerging sectors.

Will these numbers hold up? Who knows. But one thing is clear: Anyone predicting a retraction for the 鈥渉igh鈥� valuations attributed to leading unicorns a year or two ago has so far been mostly very wrong.

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• Cursor鈥檚 $2.3B Financing Reminds Us: Coding Automation Is Still Ultra-Hot

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While total late-stage investment has risen in the past few years, less is going to smaller deals. Funding to late-stage rounds of $30 million and under has been particularly weak, declining for six years in a row, per 小蓝视频色情网页版 data.

Now, it鈥檚 circling a low. In 2025, U.S. investment in these smaller rounds at Series C and beyond totaled just $1.36 billion across just 69 rounds. That鈥檚 less than 2% of all investments at later stage.

For the first few weeks of 2026, the decline in smaller late-stage rounds looks much sharper. So far this year, they鈥檝e accounted for about 0.2% of all late-stage funding, a record low.

Wandering down later-stage memory lane

The small share of funding going to sub-$30 million rounds may not sound surprising to those following recent giant financings. After all, these are the glory days of generative AI, where the $40 billion round is an actual thing.

But it wasn鈥檛 that long ago that smaller late-stage rounds were a big part of the startup pipeline. Back in 2016, more than half of later-stage rounds were below $30 million. Such rounds accounted for more than a sixth of all investment at that stage.

Last year, by contrast, sub-$30 million late-stage rounds were just 16% of all deals and 1.6% of all investment at that stage.

Only room for big fish

What happened? It looks similar to the trends we鈥檝e seen at seed. Once largely populated with rounds of a couple million dollars, seed now regularly features deals of over $100 million. Yes, smaller rounds are still getting done, but they鈥檙e not where the asset class is concentrating its capital.

One simple explanation across stages is that investors are increasingly in consensus about who they see as the likely big winners. They鈥檙e putting their money behind a few standouts rather than spreading their bets. It鈥檚 a reasonable approach for a world where top public companies are valued in the trillions, and few smaller venture-backed companies even make it to the public markets.

A constrained environment for some core acquirers might also be a contributing factor. In the past, the idea of selling to a tech giant might have been a viable option for a non-unicorn. These days, concerns around antitrust scrutiny and other factors have led large-caps to pull back on smaller deals, with the five largest tech companies in particular showing scant appetite for small-scale M&A.

Private equity is also a less interested acquirer lately, as higher borrowing costs make debt-financed purchases costlier. Venture-backed startups are typically not throwing off a lot of cash flow, making them a poor contributor to servicing debt.

Bottom line, there aren鈥檛 as many clear paths to the good-but-not-phenomenal type of exit a later-stage startup could realistically envision. Yes, startups are still buying other startups, but these are often smaller purchases.

The preeminent use case for a smaller late-stage round may have more to do with the company itself than exit prospects. Some companies may not need that much to get to their next milestone. Yet without any fresh capital, they鈥檙e unlikely to get there at all.

This also sounds a lot like real life. But these days, the startup funding world is resembling that less and less.

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• The Big 5 Still Aren鈥檛 Buying Many Startups
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But Google has never been one to take its lead as a given. Over the years, the company and its venture arm has been among the tech industry鈥檚 most active startup investors and highest spending acquirers, 小蓝视频色情网页版 data shows.

Recent quarters have been particularly busy. In 2025, the company partook in the largest number of funding rounds in years. Those rounds also had the highest collective value since the market peak four years ago.

This year is also off to a brisk start with the company’s most famous spinout 鈥� 鈥� raising $16 billion this week in a new round valuing the autonomous driving company and robotaxi operator at $126 billion post-money. Google’s and participated in the financing but were not lead investors. Last year, Waymo said it more than tripled its annual volume to 15 million rides.

Beyond that, Google has also been a prodigious lead investor. Last year, it led or co-led 67 known rounds valued at more than $5 billion.听

Last year鈥檚 biggest rounds were a reported $1 billion for and a $600 million -led Series B for , a developer of AI software to power robots. This year, Google co-led a $300 million financing, alongside and , in AI inference startup .

Purchases are few but very expensive

In recent years, we鈥檝e noticed that the most valuable technology companies aren鈥檛 acquiring very many venture-backed startups, even if they keep investing in them.

That said, fewer deals doesn鈥檛 always mean less spending. This is particularly true for Google, which last spring announced plans to buy cloud security provider for $32 billion in what stands to be the largest startup acquisition of all time.

That alone would have been enough for the year. But as 2025 was winding to a close, swooped in with another jumbo M&A deal, data center energy provider for $4.75 billion in cash plus assumption of debt. Notably, both deals are outside Google鈥檚 core areas like search and advertising, which likely reflects desire to lessen antitrust scrutiny.

The money to do anything

It鈥檚 worth noting that when a company is valued in the trillions and has reliable profits and deep cash reserves to boot, it鈥檚 the opposite of financially restrained. Google has the ability to buy or invest in anything, at essentially any price. Given this, it鈥檚 instructive to look at what it鈥檚 not spending on, as well as where it鈥檚 directing capital.

For a tech giant, Google and Alphabet show little interest in acquiring companies with expertise in their most famous business segments. This could presumably be due to antitrust concerns or a confidence that these are areas they鈥檝e got covered in-house. However, they are still quite aware of stress points 鈥� such as security and AI infrastructure 鈥� in which an outside company鈥檚 expertise and track record could offer big benefits.

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• The Big 5 Still Aren鈥檛 Buying Many Startups

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