North American Startup Funding Hit a Record $392B in H1 2026 as AI Megarounds Dominated

North American venture investment hit all-time highs in the first half of 2026, with U.S. and Canadian startups raising $392 billion, according to Crunchbase data. Q2 alone totaled $137.2 billion, ranking behind only Q1 as one of the largest quarters on record. The key takeaway: the surge was not broad-based deal growth, but a market defined by enormous rounds.

Late-stage and technology growth funding accounted for around $101 billion in Q2, the second-highest tally of all time. Anthropic was the quarter’s largest fundraiser, pulling in $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation, including a $50 billion May round and corporate-led rounds from Amazon and Google. Anduril Industries also raised a $5 billion Series H, underscoring how heavily the quarter’s totals depended on a small set of giant financings.

Early-stage investment reached just over $31 billion in Q2, nearly double year-ago levels and up about 15% from Q1, even as deal count fell to the lowest point in five quarters. Prometheus, a physical AI startup co-founded by Jeff Bezos, raised $12 billion and contributed more than 40% of the early-stage total. Seed and angel funding moved in the opposite direction, falling to around $4.9 billion, down 15% from the prior quarter and 27% from a year ago.

About 80% of Q2 investment across stages went to AI-focused startups, per Crunchbase data. The quarter also brought major exits, including SpaceX’s $75 billion IPO and its $60 billion acquisition of Cursor and parent company Anysphere. Other notable transactions included Cerebras Systems’ $5.6 billion IPO, Eli Lilly’s planned acquisition of Kelonia Therapeutics for up to $7 billion in cash, and Qualcomm’s $4 billion acquisition of Modular.

The report frames 2026 as uncharted territory for startup financing, IPOs and M&A, with unusually large funding rounds and exits setting new benchmarks. Anthropic and OpenAI have both signaled intentions to go public at valuations close to or exceeding $1 trillion, while billion-dollar-plus startup rounds are no longer described as anomalies. For founders and investors, the practical question is whether AI-led concentration continues or whether funding momentum broadens across more companies and stages.