糖心视频

Back in 2018, in the early days of Crunchbase News, we created a category called the 鈥�Supergiant Round鈥� to refer to startup financings of $100 million or more. Fast-forward to today, and those parameters look laughably puny.聽

Not only is a round of $100 million not remarkably large anymore, it鈥檚 not even atypical. Per Crunchbase data, the median U.S. late-stage round this year was exactly $100 million.

Moreover, if $100 million is supergiant, what do you call something more than 1,000x bigger, like 鈥檚 record-setting round this spring? That company鈥檚 chatbot suggests terms such as “leviathan,鈥� 鈥渃olussus鈥� or 鈥渢itan.鈥� Another option would be to recognize that what was once a legit supergiant round is today just a humdrum, everyday kind of deal.

The $100M+ round over 10 years

The rise of the $100 million-plus round hasn鈥檛 been chronologically linear, as charted below:

Initially, the category gained traction in the late 2010s, as companies such as , and scaled up late-stage financing in advance of plans for public offerings.

Around the peak of the 2021 bull market, the volume of 鈥渟upergiant鈥� rounds hit a cyclical peak. Dealmaking fell in subsequent years before picking up again with the rise of the AI funding wave.

Notably, more money than ever is now going into jumbo-sized rounds. However, as capital gets concentrated among a handful of hot names, deal volumes remain well below the prior peak.

Still, trends are looking up. So far this year, investors have backed 250 startup financings of $100 million or more. That puts 2026 on track for a year-over-year gain in deal count. Capital raised, meanwhile, is already at record-setting levels thanks to giant rounds for OpenAI, 聽and others.聽聽

Median round on the rise

In tandem, the size of the median late-stage round has also risen. Per Crunchbase data, the typical financing at this stage has roughly doubled since 2020, from just over $50 million to around $100 million.

And it鈥檚 not a small cohort either. So far this year, U.S. startups have secured 250 rounds of $100 million or more, per Crunchbase data. Of those, half were for $200 million or more. Eighteen were for $1 billion more.

Valuations moving higher too, obviously

Of course, you don鈥檛 get ginormous startup financings without rapidly escalating valuations as well. And this year has been exceptional in delivering those.

Among U.S. startups that raised $100 million or more this year, 21 had pre-money valuations of $10 billion or more, per Crunchbase data.1 Two of those 鈥� Anthropic and OpenAI 鈥� have filed confidentially for IPOs that could reportedly set valuations close to $1 trillion.

Bottom line: Startup investors aren鈥檛 just putting unprecedented sums into giant rounds;聽 they鈥檙e expecting record-setting returns as well. We鈥檒l see in coming months if public markets deliver.

Related Crunchbase query:

Related reading:

• The Rise And Rise Of Supergiant Rounds
• Small Late-Stage Rounds Are Fading Away

Illustration: