Global venture capital investment more than doubled to a record $330.9bn in the first quarter of this year, KPMG said, fuelled by “an extraordinary concentration of capital in large megadeals”.
The huge jump from $128.6bn in Q4 of last year was underpinned by ten funding rounds which attracted more than $2bn in VC investment, which contributed more than $206bn to the Q1 2026 total.
AI-focused companies attracted the majority of these funding rounds, KPMG Private Enterprise’s latest Venture Pulse report said, including OpenAI ($122bn), Anthropic ($30.6bn), xAI ($20bn) and Waymo ($16bn).
The report said that activity spurred deal value rose across all major regions during the quarter, with the US alone accounting for more than $267bn of the ultimate total.
In Europe, VC investment rose to a 14-quarter high of $25.7bn, while Asia saw funding climb to a 12-quarter high of $31.8bn.
Conor Moore, global head of KPMG Private Enterprise at KPMG International, said, “Q1’26 marked a very strong start to the year for VC investment across all regions of the world, with megadeals occurring on a scale far beyond anything we’ve seen before.
“While the Americas – entirely due to the US – reached an extraordinary record high, both Europe and Asia also saw very healthy investment.
“AI remained the dominant investment theme, with interest pouring not only into large language model focused companies, but increasingly into startups focused on the application of AI across industries and verticals.”
The report said that although the largest AI-focused rounds were captured by major US-based LLM companies, investor interest extended well beyond foundational models to a diverse mix of AI-related startups across regions.
That included companies focused on semiconductors, datacenters, and other enabling infrastructure, as well as AI platforms, agentic AI, physical AI and vertical-specific solutions.
KPMG said global exit value had more than doubled to $413.5bn quarter on quarter in Q1 of this year, reaching the highest level of exit value seen since Q4 of 2021.
The report saidm that the sharp increase in deal value was driven primarily by M&A activity – including several exceptionally large transactions, including SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI – with overall deal count remaining relatively stable.
It added that IPO activity presented a more mixed picture, accounting for $65.2bn in transaction value, while volume remained “quite subdued” at 83 new listings.
Carolina de Oliveira, global lead of emerging giants at KPMG International, said, “As we head into Q2’26, geopolitical tensions are casting a big shadow over the VC investment market globally, particularly in the Americas and Europe.
“VC investors are becoming increasingly concerned about rising oil prices and the possibility of renewed inflation and rate increases should tensions continue.
“While this could keep IPO activity subdued in the near term, AI is expected to remain a clear standout for investors globally, alongside defense tech, spacetech, and cybersecurity.”
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