July 2026 venture funding reaches $65 billion as 14 startups raise $1 billion or more

July 2026 venture funding reached $65 billion globally, up 100% from a year earlier and 10% from June, according to Crunchbase. The data provider counted 14 startup rounds of at least $1 billion, the highest monthly number it has recorded, although the combined value of those mega-rounds was not a record.

July was the third-largest funding month of 2026 in Crunchbase’s data. The figures are based on reported transactions and were current as of Aug. 3; Crunchbase cautions that reporting delays are most pronounced in seed activity, meaning totals can change as deals are disclosed or added to its database.

What drove July 2026 venture funding?

AI-focused companies received $35 billion, about 53% of global startup funding for the month, Crunchbase said. Aerospace, defense and energy were also among the leading sectors. That sector mix is broader than AI alone, but the data does not show how much of the 14-round total each sector represented.

The largest disclosed transaction was Blue Origin’s $10 billion investment, which Crunchbase described as the Jeff Bezos-founded space company’s first external financing. Safe Superintelligence reportedly raised $5 billion from Nvidia. Beijing-based Moonshot AI raised $3.5 billion, and Kling AI raised $2.8 billion for short-video generation.

Nine of the 14 companies were based in the U.S., while Germany and China each had two and Singapore had one. The German recipients included defense technology companies Helsing and Quantum Systems. U.S. recipients spanned energy, industrial robotics, AI training, security and semiconductors, according to Crunchbase.

U.S.-based startups collectively raised $39 billion, or roughly 59% of the worldwide total. Crunchbase said about half of that U.S. capital went to AI-focused companies. The monthly summary identifies round sizes, headquarters and sectors for the cohort, but does not provide a comparable operating or valuation scorecard for all 14 companies.

How did startup exits compare with fundraising in July?

Fundraising was accompanied by reported liquidity events, though the figures measure a separate part of the market. Crunchbase recorded more than $9 billion in venture-backed mergers and acquisitions during July, including five exits priced above $1 billion.

Among the deals it highlighted were London-based data-center provider Nscale’s roughly $1.65 billion acquisition of AI-workflow software company Anyscale, and AI-native security company Cyera’s $1 billion acquisition of Oasis Security. Crunchbase also counted 12 venture-backed public listings valued above $1 billion: six U.S. companies, five Chinese companies and one Italian company.

The data points to an active month for both private financings and exits, without establishing that one caused the other. It also underscores why record counts and record funding dollars should be kept separate: July set the former benchmark for billion-dollar rounds, not the latter.

Crunchbase’s July report said startups raised $515 billion globally in the first half of 2026. Separately, SiliconANGLE reported a $510 billion first-half figure while citing Crunchbase data. The supplied reports do not explain the $5 billion difference, so the two totals should not be treated as interchangeable.

This story draws on original reporting from Crunchbase News.