Stories
Shows how policy, balance sheets, market structure, and investor expectations transmit change across industries.
In December, the total US venture capital investment was $15.4 billion, a month-on-month decrease of 15.4%. AI companies received $10.4 billion, accounting for 67.6%.
As of 2026, the deep tech industry has raised over $1.33 trillion in cumulative funding over the past decade, with over $375 billion raised in 2026 alone. The United States leads with 28,758 startups, with OpenAI, NVIDIA, etc. as benchmarks. Early-stage and late-stage funding reached $287 billion and $726 billion respectively.
PitchBook says U.S. venture investment reached $412.7 billion in the first half of 2026, with AI deals absorbing the vast majority of capital; SpaceX’s $1.7 trillion IPO was the quarter’s most important exit event. Together, the sources point to a record market size driven mainly by a handful of very large transactions. Reuters’ coverage of SpaceX-related market valuations is more cautious, suggesting that some high-valuation claims leave room for greater volatility.
PitchBook’s “Q2 2026 Global VC First Look” shows that global venture capital deal value rose for a second consecutive quarter in Q2 2026, led by larger financings; after the IPO market reopened, exit value and exit activity also recovered. At the H1 level, deals, exits, and fundraising showed a “divergent but improving” trend, though fundraising remained selective.
Based on three source documents, the 2026 U.S. venture capital market’s midyear performance shows AI as the key driver behind stronger early-stage and growth/late-stage fundraising, while capital raising is heavily concentrated in large funds. The sources also note that “mega-IPOs” such as SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI may shape the future exit environment, although their actual market impact cannot yet be confirmed. The PE source only provides context on exits and asset aging and cannot be used to directly substitute for VC conclusions.
PitchBook says robotics and physical AI set a funding record in the first quarter of 2026, with total financing reaching $16.3 billion across 492 deals. Other sources also show continued momentum in the sector, though their reporting differs on methodology, time frame, and investment focus. What can be confirmed now is that massive funding is pushing the industry from the “experimental stage” toward the “deployment stage,” with investors paying closer attention to scaled manufacturing, paying customers, and integration-cost control.