The first quarter of 2026 set a new high for venture investment, with investors pouring 300 billion into 6,000 startups globally in the quarter, up over 150% quarter over quarter and year over year. That total was an all-time high for global venture investment and amounted to close to 70% of all venture capital spending in 2025. The quarter also exceeded all full-year investment totals prior to 2018.
Artificial Intelligence companies drove the surge. Four of the five largest venture rounds ever recorded were closed in Q1 2026, with frontier labs OpenAI (122 billion), Anthropic (30 billion), xAI (20 billion) and self-driving company Waymo (16 billion) collectively raising 188 billion, or 65% of global venture investment in the quarter. Overall, Artificial Intelligence shattered records last quarter, with 242 billion, 80% of total global venture funding in Q1, going to companies in the sector. Another 10 companies raised funding rounds of 1 billion or more in Q1 across generative and physical Artificial Intelligence, autonomous vehicles, semiconductors, data centers, robotics, defense and prediction markets.
The concentration of capital pushed valuations sharply higher. The Crunchbase Unicorn Board added 900 billion in value during the quarter, marking the largest valuation bump in a single quarter. U.S.-based companies raised 250 billion, or 83% of global venture capital in Q1. China ranked second with 16.1 billion invested, followed by the U.K. with 7.4 billion. Both countries increased quarter over quarter and year over year.
Late-stage financing accounted for most of the jump. Late-stage funding reached 246.6 billion, up 205% year over year, 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 funding totaled 41.3 billion across 1,800 deals, and was up 41% year over year from 29.4 billion. Seed funding totaled 12 billion, up 31% year over year, while deal counts fell 30% year over year to 3,800.
Exit activity showed a split between listings and acquisitions. A total of 21 venture-backed companies exited globally above 1 billion in Q1, with thirteen from China, four more from elsewhere in Asia, and four from the U.S. The largest IPO in Q1 was Japan-based PayPay, valued at 10 billion upon listing, while China-based Z.ai and MiniMax each debuted at more than 6 billion. Startup M&A was stronger, with exits cumulatively valued north of 56.6 billion. The largest deals were Savvy Games Group’s 6 billion planned acquisition of ByteDance’s gaming platform Moonton, and Capital One’s planned 5.15 billion acquisition of fintech startup Brex.
