Mega-funds take commanding share of US venture fundraising
PitchBook says funds over $1 billion have collected nearly 72% of U.S. VC capital raised in 2026, while first-time managers remain squeezed.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
U.S. venture fundraising is concentrating around the industry’s largest firms, according to PitchBook’s U.S. VC midyear outlook. Funds larger than $1 billion have drawn almost 72% of all capital raised in 2026 so far, a split that points to a widening divide between established managers and newer funds.
PitchBook said first-time managers accounted for less than 10% of fundraising. Kyle Stanford, PitchBook’s director of U.S. venture capital research, told Fortune that the imbalance is likely to persist or grow over time.
Stanford said large, multi-strategy venture firms have more ability to win competitive deals because they can offer prices smaller rivals cannot match. He said that if those firms keep producing returns, they will have more sway with limited partners that supply capital to VC funds.
The same concentration is showing up in exits, according to Fortune’s reporting on the PitchBook outlook. SpaceX’s public debut helped create $1.8 trillion in IPO exit value, but Stanford said that does not mean the public-offering market has reopened broadly for venture-backed companies.
Stanford told Fortune that the market has changed and that being a public company has lost some appeal compared with remaining a private unicorn. He said he does not expect IPOs to regain their former status as the central goal for many venture-backed companies.
AI is pulling in the largest checks
PitchBook’s data also shows how much venture capital is clustering around artificial intelligence. By the end of May, $274.2 billion in late-stage venture capital had been invested, and 86.4% of that total was tied to four combined rounds from OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, Fortune reported, citing PitchBook.
xAI has since merged with SpaceX, according to Fortune. The figures show that the biggest private technology companies are continuing to capture a large share of late-stage funding.
Early-stage activity is moving in the other direction by deal count, according to PitchBook. The firm estimates that more than 7,000 first financings will be completed by the end of 2026, which would set a record.
Stanford said AI’s long-term return potential remains the central open issue for venture capital. He pointed to reports of high costs borne by some corporations and said those expenses are raising questions about whether many AI companies can sustain their models over time.
PitchBook’s figures show AI’s reach across company stages. Stanford told Fortune that 75% of tech dollars at the pre-seed and seed stages are going to AI, while almost 90% of late-stage tech dollars are flowing into the category.
The result is a venture market split between two forces: record early-company formation on one side and a heavy concentration of capital in the largest funds and best-known AI companies on the other. PitchBook’s outlook suggests that the next phase will depend heavily on whether AI investments can generate returns large enough to support the amount of capital now committed to the sector.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.