Update: The data and charts in this report were updated as of 11:30 a.m. PT on April 1, 2026, to reflect the latest data from Crunchbase for the first quarter of 2026.
The first quarter of 2026 was like no other for venture capital investment, driven by unprecedented spending on AI computing and pioneering labs. Crunchbase data shows that investors invested $300 billion in 6,000 startups globally during the quarter, up more than 150% quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.
This is an all-time high for global venture capital investment, unmatched by any other quarter on record. In fact, startup investments in the first quarter of 2026 alone totaled nearly 70% of all venture capital spending in 2025. The quarterly sum also exceeds all full-year investment totals prior to 2018.
Startup investments in the first quarter went largely to AI startups and disproportionately to a handful of U.S.-based companies in record deals. Four of the five largest venture capital rounds on record closed in the first quarter of 2026, with frontier labs OpenAI ($122 billion), Anthropic ($30 billion), xAI ($20 billion) and standalone business Waymo ($16 billion) collectively raising $188 billion, or 65% of global venture capital investments during the quarter.
Overall, AI broke records last quarter, with $242 billion – 80% of total global venture funding in the first quarter – going to companies in the sector. The previous record was set in Q1 2025while AI accounted for 55% of global venture capital funding.
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Increase in valuation, concentration of capital
Alongside the top three Pioneer Labs and Waymo, 10 other companies raised seed rounds of $1 billion or more in the first quarter, in sectors spanning generative and physical AI, autonomous vehicles, semiconductors, data centers, robotics, defense and prediction markets.
These outsized funding rounds drove up overall startup valuations in the first quarter. The Unicorn Crunchbase board added $900 billion in value during the quarter, representing the largest valuation increase in a single quarter.
United States above 80%
U.S.-based companies raised $250 billion, or 83% of global venture capital, in the first quarter, according to Crunchbase data. This represents a significant increase from 71% in the first quarter of 2025, which was already well above historical averages in the decade leading up to 2024.
The world’s second-largest market for venture capital funding in the first quarter was China, with $16.1 billion invested. The United Kingdom followed, with $7.4 billion invested. Both countries saw an increase quarter-over-quarter and even more significantly year-over-year.
Late hike
The increase in financing in the first quarter was focused on late-stage financing, which reached $246.6 billion, an increase of 205% year-over-year, across 584 transactions. In total, $235 billion was invested in 158 early-stage companies that raised funding rounds of $100 million and above.
Early stage up over 40%
Seed funding totaled $41.3 billion across 1,800 deals, according to Crunchbase data.
Funding increased slightly quarter-over-quarter, but was up 41% year-over-year from $29.4 billion. Much of that increase went to Series A rounds, according to Crunchbase data. Series B deals declined quarter-over-quarter, but are still up year-over-year.
Startup funding up over 30%
Seed funding totaled $12 billion, up 31% year-over-year, although the increase was entirely due to larger roundswith the number of transactions down 30% year-on-year to 3,800.
Slowdown in IPOs, resumption of mergers and acquisitions
Record venture capital investment in U.S. companies did not translate into a stronger IPO market in the first quarter.
In fact, the U.S. new listings market slowed in the first quarter amid a broader selloff in the software stock market, although China’s IPO market has recovered.
A total of 21 venture-backed companies exited the global market worth more than $1 billion in the first quarter. Thirteen of them were from China, four more from elsewhere in Asia and four from the United States.
The biggest IPO of the first quarter took place in Japan PayPaya fintech for mobile payments valued at $10 billion at listing. Two founding laboratory companies from China — Z.ai And MiniMax – debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchangeeach valued at more than $6 billion.
While the IPO market has been somewhat lackluster, startup M&A was strong in the first quarter with cumulative valued exits at more than $56.6 billion, according to data from Crunchbase. This marks the third highest startup M&A quarter since the 2022 downturn.
The largest M&A deals in the first quarter were Savvy Playgroupthe planned $6 billion acquisition of ByteDancethe gaming platform MoontonAnd Capital onePlanned $5.15 billion acquisition of fintech startup Brex.
Public pressure
While frontier lab mega-towers defined the first quarter of 2026, a closer look at the data shows that every startup funding round grew over the last quarter, as did round sizes across the board.
And unlike the cloud and mobile era, this cycle is also building in the physical world, with massive capital flowing not only into software, but also into infrastructure, autonomous vehicles, robotics and manufacturing.
Today, with the rise in startup valuations and a arrears of companies benefiting from unprecedented private capitalpressure is building on IPO markets for a 2026 reopening.
Related Crunchbase queries:
Methodology
The data in this report comes directly from Crunchbase and is based on reported data. Data is as of March 31, 2026.
It is worth noting that data lags are more pronounced in the early stages of VC activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.
Please note that all financing values are quoted in US dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the spot rate in effect from the date financing rounds, acquisitions, IPOs, and other financial events are reported. Even though these events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, currency transactions are converted at the historical spot price.
Glossary of financing terms
Seeds and Angels consist of rounds of seeds, pre-seeds and angels. Crunchbase also includes seed rounds, equity crowdfunding, and convertible notes in amounts of $3 million (USD or converted USD equivalent) or less.
The early stage includes Series A and B rounds, as well as other types of rounds. Crunchbase includes seed rounds, venture projects and other rounds over $3 million, as well as those under $15 million.
Advanced phases include Series C, D, E and subsequent venture capital series of letters following the naming convention “Series (Letter)”. Also included are unknown series rounds, corporate projects and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate financing rounds are only included if a company has raised early-stage equity financing through a serial venture financing round.
Tech Growth is a private equity round raised by a company that has already raised a venture round. (So basically any round of the previously defined steps.)
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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