US VC deal value hits record $515.8B as AI takes 82.7% share
US venture capital deal value reached $515.8 billion in the first nine months of the year, about 44% above the previous annual record, with AI accounting for a record 82.7% of that value, according to the PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor. Third-quarter deal value fell about 40% to $98.4 billion, and exits remain weak: SpaceX's $60 billion all-stock purchase of Cursor developer Anysphere alone made up 53.1% of quarterly exit value, leaving just $53 billion without it. PitchBook counts 179 new unicorns this year and 992 companies valued at $1 billion or more, and its model gives Anthropic an 86% chance of an IPO within a year, versus 12% for OpenAI.
The figures show AI funding concentrating in a handful of frontier labs while a sluggish exit market could weigh on the wider investment chain into 2027.