Global venture capital funding is having a huge year, with funding jumping dramatically from the prior year. Approximately half of startup capital invested in the third quarter went to companies founded since 2022.
According to Crunchbase, funding totaled $159 billion in Q3 2026, with close to 6,000 early-stage firms funded. From January 1st through Q3, $679 billion in venture funding was raised – the most ever for the same period.
While funding slowed from Q1 and Q2, Q3 dollars were still higher than any other quarter since 2022.
The report explains that these big numbers are being driven by billion-dollar deals, with 57 so far this year. In the third quarter, 27 firms raised at or above the billion-dollar level.
The largest funding rounds have raised more than $3 billion this year. This includes:
- Databricks and Safe Superintelligence, which each raised $5 billion.
- Crusoe, Moonshot AI, Mistral AI, Nscale, The Boring Co. and Kling AI each raised over $3 billion.
Obviously, artificial intelligence (AI or SI) firms are driving much of the funding. AI firms raised approximately $102 billion, or 64% of global VC funds.
Early-stage funding hit $40.6 billion in Q3, up by 25% from a year earlier. Companies raising $100 million or more accounted for 50% of early-stage financings.
Seed funding during the quarter totaled $13 billion, with $2.6 billion going to seed rounds of $100 million or more.
On exits, the report says China had a strong quarter, with semiconductor and robotics leading.
In the US, mergers and acquisitions dominated, led by NVIDIA’s $12.9 billion bid for Hugging Face.
Part of this is also driven by the fact that early-stage ventures seek to remain private for as long as possible because the path to becoming a public firm is very expensive. While policymakers have heaped rule upon regulation without a thought beyond compliance, public markets have been in decline. Still, the robust risk capital available in the US is unparalleled worldwide, driving economic growth, jobs, and wealth creation.