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2026년 상반기 북미 스타트업 자금조달, AI 주도 기록 경신

업계 전문지Slicast · September 4, 2026 · 글로벌 · 출처: Crunchbase

중요도 77

North American venture investment reached all-time highs in the first half of 2026, driven by late-stage megarounds for AI industry leaders, according to Crunchbase data. This mirrors the narrative from the first quarter, when OpenAI propelled investment to unprecedented levels with the largest venture round in history. While total investment for the second quarter of 2026 was comparatively lower, it still ranked as the second-highest on record. Investors continued deploying massive capital into AI frontrunners, with a landmark financing round for Anthropic accounting for roughly half of the quarterly total. Across the first half of 2026, investment in U.S. and Canadian startups reached $392 billion, dwarfing all previous records. Second-quarter investment alone totaled $137.2 billion, significantly outpacing all prior periods except Q1.

Capital concentration defined the market. In both Q1 and Q2, historically elevated investment levels stemmed from mega-rounds rather than growth in overall deal volume. Deal counts remained well below the peaks recorded in recent years, as illustrated in the accompanying chart. Consistent with historical trends, capital heavily favored late-stage companies. Nevertheless, early-stage investment increased in Q2, further propelled by AI sector momentum.

The past several months also marked a breakout period for major exits. SpaceX headlined Q2 with the largest IPO in history, followed shortly by its acquisition of Cursor, which set a new benchmark for startup M&A. Several other notable public offerings and acquisitions rounded out the quarter. The following analysis provides a granular breakdown of Q2 funding and exit dynamics, examining investment by stage, the outsized role of AI in driving totals, and the quarter’s most significant IPOs and M&A transactions.

Table of contents

Late stage

Early stage

Seed

Exits

IPOs

M&A

Uncharted territory

Methodology

Glossary of funding terms

Late stage

We begin with late-stage and technology growth deals, which captured the majority of capital deployed. Second-quarter funding in this category reached approximately $101 billion, marking the second-highest total in five quarters and the second-highest on record. Anthropic dominated the quarter as the largest fundraiser, raising $65 billion at a $965 billion post-money valuation. The capital package included a $50 billion round in May led by Altimeter Capital, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, and Sequoia Capital, alongside corporate-led tranches from Amazon ($5 billion) and Google ($10 billion). In June, Anthropic filed confidentially for an initial public offering. Defense technology unicorn Anduril Industries also secured a substantial round, closing a $5 billion Series H financing in May led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

Early stage

Early-stage investment surged to its highest level in over three years during Q2, demonstrating that mega-rounds are no longer exclusive to mature startups. North American early-stage funding totaled just over $31 billion, nearly doubling year-over-year figures and rising approximately 15% from Q1. Despite the capital surge, deal volume fell to its lowest point in five quarters. A single transaction accounted for more than 40% of the quarterly early-stage total: a $12 billion financing round for Prometheus, a physical AI startup co-founded by Jeff Bezos. The next three largest deals were considerably smaller yet still substantial by early-stage benchmarks. Hark, an AI company developing “personalized intelligence,” raised $700 million. It was followed by Flourish, which secured $500 million to build an AI system modeled on the human brain, and Generalist AI, an AI robotics startup that closed a $400 million round.

Seed

While early-stage funding expanded, seed investment experienced a modest decline in Q2 relative to both the prior quarter and year-ago levels. According to Crunchbase data, approximately $4.9 billion flowed into seed and angel rounds during the second quarter, representing a 15% decrease from Q1 and a 27% drop year-over-year. Round counts also contracted, though these figures are expected to gradually increase as smaller seed transactions are typically reported weeks or months after closing. Nevertheless, seed totals received a lift from several exceptionally large rounds. The largest was a $200 million financing for Mirendil, a foundational AI startup dedicated to research and development. In total, at least five companies secured seed or angel rounds of $100 million or more in Q2.

Venture funding in Q2 remained overwhelmingly concentrated in artificial intelligence. Approximately 80% of cross-stage investment flowed to AI-focused startups, according to Crunchbase data. Total funding directed toward AI categories nearly tripled compared to the previous year, though it remained below Q1’s record-setting $122 billion OpenAI financing. The bulk of Q2’s AI-specific capital originated from the three previously noted rounds for Anthropic, Prometheus, and Anduril.

Exits

Beyond financing massive growth rounds, investors also realized substantial returns on earlier positions through IPOs and acquisitions.

IPOs

On the IPO front, Q2 featured the historic public market debut of SpaceX. The aerospace, satellite, and AI conglomerate raised $75 billion in June, marking the largest IPO in history. With a recent market capitalization near $2.1 trillion, SpaceX ranks as the sixth-most-valuable publicly traded company in the United States. While no other offering is expected to approach that scale, the quarter included several other notable debuts by venture-backed firms. The most anticipated was AI infrastructure and chip designer Cerebras Systems, which raised $5.6 billion in its May IPO. Quantum computing firm Quantinuum also made a strong public market entry via a June Nasdaq listing, followed by X-energy, a developer of modular nuclear reactors. The following section outlines the largest IPOs of the quarter among venture-backed North American companies.

M&A

The second quarter also produced the largest startup acquisition in history: SpaceX’s $60 billion purchase of AI coding platform Cursor and its parent company, Anysphere. SpaceX initially announced an option to acquire the company in April and finalized the transaction following its IPO. In biotechnology, the largest acquisition was executed by Eli Lilly, which announced in April its intent to acquire gene therapy developer Kelonia Therapeutics in a deal valued at up to $7 billion in cash. Other notable transactions included Qualcomm’s $4 billion acquisition of AI chip startup Modular and Salesforce’s acquisition of Fin, a provider of AI-enabled customer experience tools. The following ranking details the quarter’s largest M&A transactions:

Uncharted territory

For observers questioning what comes next, it is worth noting that startup history offers little precedent for comparing against the first half and second quarter of 2026. Never before has the market witnessed funding rounds of this magnitude, a venture-backed company debut at such a valuation, or an M&A transaction comparable to the Cursor acquisition. Looking ahead, leading startups and their investors appear confident that these unprecedented conditions will endure. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have signaled plans to pursue public listings at valuations approaching or surpassing $1 trillion. Simultaneously, mega-rounds continue at a steady pace, with transactions exceeding $1 billion no longer considered exceptional. Whether these trends will sustain remains uncertain. Within startup ecosystems, however, there is broad consensus that the AI era will produce a select group of monumental winners. The critical question remains: Which companies will ultimately prevail?

Related Crunchbase queries:

Largest North American Venture-Backed IPOs Of Q2, 2026

Largest Q2 2026 Startup Acquisitions