The global venture capital landscape has undergone a profound transformation since the 2021 boom, with capital increasingly concentrated in a smaller group of companies and a reshaped roster of investors, dominated by artificial intelligence (AI) firms. According to a Crunchbase report, total funding into rounds of $50 million or more reached roughly $300 billion in 2025. This figure is down significantly from the more than $500 billion deployed at the height of the 2021 market frenzy.
The number of companies raising at least $50 million fell sharply to 1,440 in 2025, about half the cohort seen during the pandemic peak. The makeup of lead investors has shifted massively. In 2021, private equity and crossover funds like Tiger Global Management and SoftBank Vision Fund dominated mega-rounds. However, these firms have cut back their activity in $50 million-plus financings by more than 95% over the last four years.
In 2025, traditional venture capital firms reclaimed the top spots by deal count. Eight of the 10 most active leads in rounds above $50 million were VCs. General Catalyst led with 30 deals, followed by Andreessen Horowitz with 24, and Lightspeed Venture Partners and Accel with 22 each. Despite this activity, it remains well below peak levels; the most active firm in 2025 led 30 large deals, compared with 182 by the top firm in 2021.
A dramatic shift is evident in the size and focus of the largest deals. While 2021's largest deal was a $3.6 billion financing for Flipkart, 2025 witnessed AI-centric mega-rounds of unprecedented scale. SoftBank Vision Fund led a colossal $40 billion round in OpenAI, propelling it to the top of the dollar league tables. Other massive AI investments included Meta leading a $14.3 billion round in Scale AI, and a consortium including Fidelity Investments, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Iconiq Capital co-leading a $13 billion round in Anthropic.
This trend is epitomized by Anthropic's recent $30 billion Series G funding round, which pushed its post-money valuation to a staggering $380 billion. This marks a more than doubling from its $183 billion valuation just five months prior in September 2025. The company, founded by former OpenAI researchers, now boasts an annualized revenue run-rate of $14 billion, serving eight of the Fortune 10 companies with its Claude models.
The AI funding boom has broader implications for adjacent sectors like web3, crypto, and fintech. Anthropic's enterprise-focused AI could accelerate the deployment of intelligent agents on blockchain networks for tasks like smart contract auditing and DeFi scenario simulation. In crypto markets, AI-powered predictive analytics could enhance volatility forecasting and automated market-making. For fintech, AI systems enabling hyper-personalized wealth management or real-time compliance could integrate with blockchain for immutable audit trails.
However, this rapid AI advancement is fueling market uncertainty. In early February 2026, U.S. software and services stocks shed roughly $1 trillion in a "software-mageddon," as investors fear generative AI could disrupt legacy business models. Capital is rotating toward clear AI winners, creating volatility despite record private valuations.
