It’s the year of the venture capital megadeal. A record number of private companies have closed financing rounds of $1 billion or more so far this year, according to Crunchbase.
A recent report notes that there have been 23 such deals this year, matching the 2025 total with nearly five months left in the year. There were 22 in 2021. Since the report was published, two more rounds of $1 billion or more have closed.
Per the report, $290 billion, or 73 percent, of this year’s VC funding has gone to billion-dollar-plus rounds. Before 2026, such deals were a minority.
“Not surprisingly, these megarounds are generally later-stage rounds or corporate financings,” Crunchbase notes in the report. Only two of this year’s billion-dollar-plus deals — Prometheus and World Labs — were seed or early-stage rounds.
And just two rounds of AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic account for more than half the total amount. Of the 23 deals this year, Anthropic had four of a billion or more.
Several well-known hedge funds have participated in many of these megadeals. Perhaps the most active was Coatue Management.
Institutional Investor previously reported, for example, that a number of high-profile investors had invested in one or more financing rounds for Anthropic. They include Coatue, Tiger Global, D1 Capital Partners, D.E. Shaw Ventures, Appaloosa, and Whale Rock Capital Management.
In February, Anthropic raised $30 billion in a Series G funding round co-led by Coatue, valuing Anthropic at $380 billion. Other investors included D.E. Shaw Ventures, Appaloosa, D1 Capital, and Whale Rock Capital.
Many of these firms also participated in Open AI’s $122 billion Series G financing back in March. They included Coatue, D.E. Shaw Ventures, Appaloosa, and D1 Capital Partners.
Elsewhere, Waymo in February raised $16 billion, valuing the company at $126 billion. Tiger Global was apparently the sole hedge fund investor in the autonomous-taxi company.
In May, Coatue led a $1 billion Series F financing round for prediction market company Kalshi, valuing it at $22 billion.
Fireworks, which enables companies like Uber and Shopify to train and serve customized models, raised $1.505 billion in a Series D round at a $17.5 billion valuation. Hedge fund participants included Lone Pine Capital.
In June, D.E. Shaw Ventures made a “significant investment” in the $1.5 billion Series F financing of Baseten, which builds systems software to power the world’s most advanced AI applications.
Skild AI, which makes software to help robots learn to complete tasks, raised about $1.4 billion in a funding round back in January that valued the company at $14 billion-plus, more than triple what it was worth just seven months earlier. Coatue, an earlier investor, participated in the financing round.
Earlier this month, Seligman Ventures was a “significant investor” in the $1 billion Series F round for AI infrastructure company SambaNova, valuing it at $11 billion.
And in February, AI infrastructure company Cerebras Systems raised $1 billion in a Series H financing, valuing the company at $23 billion. It was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Coatue and others.
