Global M&A Volume Hits Record High in First Half
Taylor Wilson
First-half 2026 global M&A announcements reached $2.8 trillion, up 48% year-on-year — the highest on record since 1980. A regulatory rollback and the AI arms race are reshaping how capital moves worldwide.
How big is $2.8 trillion, really?
LSEG data cited by Reuters: first-half global M&A announcements totalled $2.8 trillion, up 48% year-on-year — the highest half-year figure since records began in 1980.
Bloomberg's tally is slightly lower at roughly $2.56 trillion, up about 30%. The two datasets use different methodologies, but both point the same way: dealmaking is expanding at or beyond the post-pandemic 2021 peak.
This means → companies are buying at a pace not seen in nearly half a century. Risk appetite across capital markets has fully returned.
Why are mega-deals taking half the pie?
LSEG counted 47 deals above $10 billion in the first half, worth a combined $1.3 trillion-plus — nearly 50% of all global M&A — a record.
Marquee transactions: NextEra Energy's roughly $67 billion bid for Dominion Energy; Unilever's roughly $45 billion sale of its food unit to McCormick; Finland's Kone acquiring ThyssenKrupp Elevator for €29.4 billion; Fox Corp.'s roughly $22 billion acquisition of streaming platform Roku.
In plain terms = this cycle is not small fish eating shrimp. It is titans redrawing industry maps — each deal redefines competitive structure in its sector.
Regulatory rollback vs. AI — which is the real engine?
Laura Turano, M&A partner at Paul Weiss, said: "You can't overstate the improvement in the regulatory environment. It has truly changed the art of the possible — not just whether deals can get done, but the timeline, and the timeline directly affects whether people are willing to take that journey."
Carsten Woehrn, co-head of EMEA M&A at Goldman Sachs, said: "Companies are buying not the next five years, but the next forty or fifty." This means → the AI era's hunger for scale is pushing firms to bet through volatility rather than wait it out.
Tech led all sectors: LSEG data show $649 billion in tech M&A announcements in the first half, the highest of any industry globally.
Why are cross-border deals and corporate break-ups surging together?
Robin Rousseau, global M&A chair at Citi, said: "Companies are flush with capital, liquidity is ample, and many stocks are at highs" — giving ammunition for large cross-border acquisitions.
Break-ups are running at record scale too: Comcast plans to spin off NBCUniversal; Honeywell is splitting three ways. This reflects a declining market tolerance for over-diversified conglomerates.
Akeel Sachak, global consumer head at Rothschild, put it bluntly: "Investors are far less willing to accept over-diversification — it brings unnecessary complexity and management distraction." In plain terms = the market now rewards companies that do one thing well.
How loose is the financing environment?
LSEG data: first-half global investment-grade corporate bond issuance hit $3.4 trillion, up 10% year-on-year — the highest half-year total on record.
This means → companies do not just want to buy — they can borrow to do it. The bond market's cooperation is turning dealmaking intent into action.
Why is private equity lagging — and what to watch next?
Charles Bouckaert, global M&A head at JPMorgan, acknowledged: "What we normally think of as the bedrock of the market — regular-way private equity — has actually fallen materially." The reason: investments made at high valuations and low rates are now hard to exit.
Some big deals also fell through: GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen's roughly $53 billion bid for eBay was rejected; merger talks between Puig Brands and Estée Lauder, and between Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard, stalled.
Turano expects mid-market strategic M&A and carve-outs to pick up markedly in the second half. A formal announcement of a potential Deutsche Telekom–T-Mobile US combination would add further fuel. Whether private equity can unclog its exit pipeline may be the decisive variable in whether full-year M&A truly surpasses the 2021 peak.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.