Global venture capital activity surged in the third quarter of 2025, with total funding reaching $97 billion, up 38% year-over-year, according to a new report released today by Crunchbase Inc.

The $97 billion raised in the quarter was slightly ahead of the $92 billion raised in the second quarter. The quarter was also the fourth consecutive quarter that global venture funding has exceeded $90 billion — levels that have not been seen since 2022.

The funding rebound was, not surprisingly, driven largely by a handful of artificial intelligence companies, which collectively secured some of the largest financings of the year.

Anthropic PBC led the way with a $13 billion round, followed by xAI Inc. with $5.3 billion and Mistral AI Inc. with $2 billion. Other billion-dollar deals went to Princeton Digital Group Inc., Nscale Inc., Cerebras Systems Inc., Figure AI Inc., Databricks Inc. and PsiQuantum Corp., reflecting sustained investor appetite for AI infrastructure and advanced computing.

The data from Crunchbase shows a rising concentration of capital, with roughly a third of all global venture investment — 30% to 33% — flowing into rounds of $500 million or more. In the third quarter, 18 companies accounted for a full third of all venture capital raised.

Nearly half of all VC dollars — $45 billion, or 46% of the total — went to the AI sector, with Anthropic alone capturing 29% of global venture investment for the quarter.

After AI, hardware was the second-largest VC funded sector in the quarter, coming in at $16.3 billion thanks to investments in robotics, semiconductors, quantum and data center infrastructure. Healthcare and biotech came in at third place with $15.9 billion in funding, while financial services sat at fourth position with $12 billion raised.

In another positive sign, exit activity in the third quarter rose for the second straight quarter, with venture-backed initial public offerings rising year-over-year, led by Chery Automobile Co. Ltd., Figma Inc., Klarna Bank AB and Netskope Inc. Sixteen companies went public in the quarter with valuations above $1 billion, collectively worth more than $90 billion at offering prices.

Merger and acquisition activity was also strong in the quarter, coming in at $28 billion, down from $51.7 billion in the second quarter but still strong by historical standards. Ten companies were acquired for more than $1 billion each, including notable deals such as OpenAI’s acquisition of Statsig Inc. and Workday Inc.’s purchase of Sana Labs AB.

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