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, Crunchbase data shows. The data also illustrates how capital is concentrating into a handful of companies at unprecedented scale while IPOs and acquisitions have returned in force, with the second quarter notching one of the strongest periods for venture-backed exits in years.OpenAI and Anthropic alone accounted for $217 billion — 43% of all startup funding in H1 — underscoring how a small handful of frontier AI companies is reshaping venture markets. At the same time, other massive funding deals across industries including AI infrastructure, defense, robotics and healthcare — combined with record IPO and M&A activity — signal that the AI investment boom has grown well beyond a select few top foundation labs.

Full report : Global VC funding hit a record $510 billion in H1 2026, with OpenAI and Anthropic accounting for $217 billion, or 43% of the total; in Q2, VCs put $205 billion into 5,000+ startups.