CB Insights reports that artificial intelligence continued to dominate venture activity in the second quarter of 2026, even as overall funding totals declined from the prior period’s peak. According to recent CB Insights analysis, global equity investment in AI reached $149.5 billion during Q2, a noticeable drop from the record $237.6 billion recorded in Q1
On the surface this suggests a cooling market, yet the quarter’s defining feature was extreme concentration among a small number of massive transactions
Rounds of $100 million or more represented only about 6 percent of all AI deals
Those same mega-rounds, however, captured $132.5 billion—nearly 89 percent of every dollar invested in the sector
Anthropic alone claimed three of the five largest financings of the period, including raises of $50 billion, $10 billion, and $5 billion
Completing the top five were Project Prometheus with a $12 billion Series B and DeepSeek with a $7.5 billion Series A
Once these outsized transactions are set aside, the remaining AI funding landscape appears far more stable than the headline figures imply. Liquidity events painted a more mixed picture
Mergers and acquisitions declined 10 percent while initial public offerings slipped 6 percent compared with the previous quarter
CB Insights also noted that artificial intelligence nevertheless remained the leading category for exits, accounting for 447 transactions
The companies that did successfully exit had been expanding aggressively beforehand
SpaceX increased its workforce by 48 percent over two years, reaching more than 20,000 employees ahead of its record $1.78 trillion IPO
AI chip specialist Cerebras nearly tripled headcount in the same timeframe before exiting at a $40.6 billion valuation
Biotech firm Tubulis grew its staff 71 percent in a single year prior to Gilead’s $5 billion acquisition
Such hiring patterns indicate these companies were scaling operations and products rather than seeking an exit from a position of weakness. Unicorn creation provided another bright spot
CB Insights further noted in the report that thirty-seven new AI companies crossed the $1 billion valuation threshold in Q2, up from 32 in the first quarter and the strongest quarterly total since the second quarter of 2022
The global roster of AI unicorns now stands at 671
The United States still produced the largest share, with 20 of the 37 newcomers, yet that 54 percent stake is lower than America’s existing 67 percent ownership of the overall unicorn population
Asia contributed nine new unicorns, or 24 percent of the quarter’s cohort—well above its 15 percent share of the cumulative total
DeepSeek’s $59.2 billion valuation marked the highest among the new entrants and helped drive Asia’s stronger relative performance
CB Insights also pointed out that on the US side, the Bezos-backed physical-AI company Project Prometheus debuted at $41 billion, underscoring continued investor appetite for both infrastructure and embodied AI applications
Taken together, the data reveal a market that is simultaneously concentrating capital in a handful of ultra-large rounds, producing fewer but higher-quality exits, and generating new unicorns at a multi-year high. The geographic distribution of those unicorns is also gradually shifting, with Asia capturing a larger slice of the newest high-valuation companies
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