CB Insights It reported that AI continues to dominate venture activity in the second quarter of 2026, even as overall funding totals fall from the previous period’s peak. According to the latest CB Insights analysisglobal capital investment artificial intelligence It reached $149.5 billion in the second quarter, a noticeable decrease from the record of $237.6 billion recorded in the first quarter.
On the surface, this suggests a cooling SundayBut the defining feature of the quarter was extreme concentration among a small number of large transactions.
Rounds of $100 million or more represented only about 6 percent of all AI deals.
But the same mega-rounds captured $132.5 billion; This accounts for almost 89 percent of every dollar invested in the industry.
anthropic He single-handedly requested three of the five largest financings of the period, including $50 billion, $10 billion and $5 billion raises.
Rounding out the top five were Project Prometheus, with a $12 billion Series B, and DeepSeek, with a $7.5 billion Series A.
These outsized transactions aside, the remaining AI funding landscape looks much more stable than the headline numbers would imply. Liquidity events painted a more mixed picture.
Mergers and acquisitions decreased by 10 percent compared to the previous quarter, while initial public offerings decreased by 6 percent.
CB Insights also noted: artificial intelligence nevertheless, it remained the leading category for exits with 447 transactions.
Companies that have successfully exited were previously expanding aggressively.
SpaceX It grew its workforce by 48 percent in two years, reaching more than 20,000 employees before its record $1.78 trillion IPO.
AI chip specialist Cerebras nearly tripled its headcount in the same time period before exiting at a $40.6 billion valuation.
Biotech firm Tubulis grew its staff by 71 percent in the single year before its $5 billion acquisition of Gilead.
Such hiring patterns indicate that these companies are scaling their operations and products rather than looking for an exit from a weak position. The unicorn creation provided another bright spot.
CB Insights also reported thirty-seven new artificial intelligence Companies surpassed the $1 billion valuation threshold in the second quarter, compared to 32 in the first quarter, the strongest quarterly total since the second quarter of 2022.
global list artificial intelligence unicorns currently stands at 671.
United States The newcomer still produced the largest share, with 20 of the 37, but that 54 percent share is lower than America’s current 67 percent of the overall unicorn population.
Asia contributed nine new unicorns, or 24 percent, of the quarter; this was well above its 15 percent share of the cumulative total.
DeepSeek’s $59.2 billion valuation was the highest among new market entrants and helped fuel Asia’s relatively stronger performance.
CB Insights also stated: WE Project Prometheus, a Bezos-backed physical artificial intelligence company, came to the market with $41 billion and underlined that investors’ appetite for both infrastructure and embodied artificial intelligence applications continues.
Taken together, data It reveals a market that is simultaneously concentrating capital on a handful of ultra-large rounds, producing fewer but higher-quality exits and producing new unicorns at multi-year highs. The geographical distribution of these unicorns is also slowly changing with Asia. catch a larger slice of the most recent highvaluation companies.
