According to New, global investment in startups reached $297 billion in the first quarter of 2026, breaking all records Crunchbase data. That’s a massive 2.5x increase from the $118 billion raised in the previous quarter. This quarter-long haul dwarfs every full yr of world VC activity prior to 2019.
The unprecedented growth was driven by just 4 deals with giants, each of which was record-breaking in its own right.
Last month, OpenAI announced that its valuation now stands at $852 billion after raising $122 billion, surpassing the previous record for the largest-ever funding round, also set by OpenAI when the ChatGPT maker raised $40 billion a yr ago.
This quarter, Anthropic, its fundamental rival, raised $30 billion at a valuation of $380 billion. This fundraising made it the third-largest VC round in history. The other two mega-deals in the quarter included xAI’s $20 billion fundraising and Waymo’s $16 billion round.
These 4 rounds raised a total of $188 billion, representing greater than 63% of total funding for the quarter.
While you would possibly think fundraising can be more typical without them, anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise. For example, investors and founders say that seed-stage AI startups are achieving higher profits and higher valuations at earlier stages than ever before.
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