Startup exits valued at $1 billion or more are now more numerous than at any point since the 2021 market peak, Crunchbase data shows.
That’s the trend we’re seeing for the second quarter of 2026. This period has brought us both the largest venture-backed exit of all time, with SpaceX, and a bevy of other comparatively tinier but still sizable startup exits through acquisition or IPO.
Overall, we’re still well behind the prior high in terms of the number of big exits, as you can see charted below. The IPO and SPAC boom of five years ago will be hard to match for exit count.
Bigger numbers
But while the Q2 exit deal counts may be still below peak, the actual returns are not.
For that, of course, we can thank SpaceX, which earlier this month shattered records with a historical debut that culminated in a staggering $2.1 trillion first-day market cap. Its long-awaited offering raised some $75 billion and served as an enormous liquidity event for founder Elon Musk.
Compared to that, every other Q2 startup exit looks pretty paltry. But by any other comparative metric, these other big exits were also very impressive.
SpaceX’s $60 billion acquisition of AI coding platform Cursor a few days after its IPO, for instance, was the priciest purchase of a private, venture-backed startup ever.
As for IPOs, Cerebras Systems made a splashy entry in May with an offering that raised at least $5.55 billion. Shares are down from the first-day closing price, but the company still maintains a sizable market cap around $38 billion.
Earlier this month, quantum computing company Quantinuum also had a big debut on Nasdaq, raising $1.7 billion and securing an initial market cap of $15.6 billion. Shares are still up sharply from the initial price.
For a broader view of big deals, below we put together a list of all the Q2 venture-backed private company exits valued at $1 billion or more.
Trend: fewer deals but larger ones
Even though the number of big deals picked up in Q2, the more noteworthy trend is the size of exits rather than the quantity. Size will likely still be the standout feature in coming months, with both Anthropic and OpenAI filing confidentially for IPOs that could test the trillion-dollar mark.
At the same time, however, the pace of exits in the billion-dollar-plus club, which in any prior cycle were considered considerable, is showing no signs of slowing.
Related reading:
Illustration: Dom Guzman
