--- title: Megadeals took 87.5% of US venture dollars, and the rest... description: PitchBook's Q2 2026 US VC Valuations report shows rounds of $100m+ took 87.5% of US venture dollars deployed in H1 2026, with AI driving the concentration. AI... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/megadeals-took-87-5-of-us-venture-dollars-and-the-rest-of-the-market-is-priced-by-vintage-fbenffm2m twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Megadeals took 87.5% of US venture dollars, and the rest of the market is priced by vintage | daily.dev og:description: PitchBook's Q2 2026 US VC Valuations report shows rounds of $100m+ took 87.5% of US venture dollars deployed in H1 2026, with AI driving the concentration. AI... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/megadeals-took-87-5-of-us-venture-dollars-and-the-rest-of-the-market-is-priced-by-vintage-fbenffm2m og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/FBeNfFM2m.png og:image:alt: Megadeals took 87.5% of US venture dollars, and the rest of the market is priced by vintage og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Megadeals took 87.5% of US venture dollars, and the rest of the market is priced by vintage **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 5 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary PitchBook's Q2 2026 US VC Valuations report shows rounds of $100m+ took 87.5% of US venture dollars deployed in H1 2026, with AI driving the concentration. AI startups command a 2.2x median valuation step-up versus 1.6x for non-AI, and late-stage velocity of value creation jumped from $108.9m in 2025 to $1,028m this year. On secondary platform Forge, companies that last raised in 2021 trade at a 59.1% discount versus no discount for 2026 vintages, a pattern mirrored by Capital One's $5.2bn acquisition of Brex, down from its $12.3bn pandemic-era peak. SpaceX dominated the exit market after going public, acquiring xAI for $250bn and announcing a $60bn all-stock deal for Cursor, though its shares now trade below IPO price. The active unicorn count hit a record 945, worth $5.3 trillion in aggregate, mostly unrealized, while nontraditional investors participated in 91.9% of US VC deal value. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What percentage of US venture capital dollars went to megadeals in the first half of 2026? Megadeals, defined as funding rounds of $100 million or more, accounted for 87.5% of US venture capital dollars deployed in the first half of 2026, according to PitchBook's Q2 2026 US VC Valuations report. Artificial intelligence is described as the primary driver of this concentration, though the figure itself measures deal size rather than sector. _Anyone tracking where startup capital is flowing follows venture funding trends like this on daily.dev._ ### Why do startups that raised funding in 2021 trade at such a steep discount on secondary markets? Companies whose last primary funding round was in 2021 trade at a median discount of 59.1% on the secondary platform Forge, compared to no discount for 2026 vintages and just 4.7% for 2025. PitchBook attributes this to stale primary rounds lacking a fresh reference price, combined with limited information rights on most secondary trades, leaving buyers nothing recent to price against. _Founders and investors weighing valuation timing can follow how secondary market discounts evolve on daily.dev._ ### How does the Brex acquisition by Capital One compare to its peak valuation? Capital One acquired Brex for $5.2 billion, roughly 58% below the fintech's peak valuation of $12.3 billion set during the pandemic. This discount closely matches the 54% to 59% secondary market discount band PitchBook reported for companies with 2021 and 2022 vintage funding rounds, showing the theoretical secondary discount playing out in an actual acquisition. _Those evaluating fintech valuations or acquisition trends can track cases like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AI crushes startup valuations for pre-ChatGPT companies](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-crushes-startup-valuations-for-pre-chatgpt-companies-bmqmhrnqu) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI startups are eating the venture industry and the returns, so far, are good](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-startups-are-eating-the-venture-industry-and-the-returns-so-far-are-good-43r38powc) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Just three companies dominated the $189 billion in VC investments last month](https://daily.dev/posts/just-three-companies-dominated-the-189-billion-in-vc-investments-last-month-bnfcs6msd) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#startup](https://daily.dev/tags/startup), [#venture-capital](https://daily.dev/tags/venture-capital), [#fintech](https://daily.dev/tags/fintech), [#market-analysis](https://daily.dev/tags/market-analysis) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/megadeals-took-87-5-of-us-venture-dollars-and-the-rest-of-the-market-is-priced-by-vintage-fbenffm2m) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Megadeals took 87.5% of US venture dollars, and the rest of the market is priced by vintage","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/megadeals-took-87-5-of-us-venture-dollars-and-the-rest-of-the-market-is-priced-by-vintage-fbenffm2m","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/megadeals-took-87-5-of-us-venture-dollars-and-the-rest-of-the-market-is-priced-by-vintage-fbenffm2m"},"datePublished":"2026-08-12T14:33:15.016Z","dateModified":"2026-08-12T14:33:43.477Z","description":"PitchBook's Q2 2026 US VC Valuations report shows rounds of $100m+ took 87.5% of US venture dollars deployed in H1 2026, with AI driving the concentration. 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Artificial intelligence is described as the primary driver of this concentration, though the figure itself measures deal size rather than sector. Anyone tracking where startup capital is flowing follows venture funding trends like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why do startups that raised funding in 2021 trade at such a steep discount on secondary markets?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Companies whose last primary funding round was in 2021 trade at a median discount of 59.1% on the secondary platform Forge, compared to no discount for 2026 vintages and just 4.7% for 2025. PitchBook attributes this to stale primary rounds lacking a fresh reference price, combined with limited information rights on most secondary trades, leaving buyers nothing recent to price against. 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