Startup funding shatters all records in Q1

Global investing in startups hit $297 billion in Q1 2026, breaking all records, according to new Crunchbase data. That’s a massive 2.5x increase over the $118 billion raised in the previous quarter. This single-quarter haul outpaces every full year of global VC activity prior to 2019.

The unprecedented spike was fueled by just four behemoth deals, each a record-breaker in its own right.

Last month, OpenAI announced that it is now valued at $852 billion after collecting $122 billion, surpassing the previous record for the largest funding round ever, also held by OpenAI when the ChatGPT maker raised $40 billion a year ago.

The quarter also saw Anthropic, its main rival, raise $30 billion at a valuation of $380 billion. That funding haul effectively made it the third-largest VC round on record. The other two mega-deals of the quarter included a $20 billion fundraise by xAI and Waymo’s $16 billion round.

These four rounds collectively raised $188 billion, accounting for more than 63% of total funding in the quarter.

While it might appear that without them, fundraising appears to be on a more typical trajectory, anecdotal evidence implies otherwise. Investors and founders say, for example, that seed-stage AI startups are commanding bigger dollars, and higher valuations at earlier stages than ever before.