Global M&A Hits Record $2.84 Trillion in First Half, Driven by AI Race
Miles Bennett
Global M&A volume reached a record $2.84 trillion in the first half of 2026, up 50% year-on-year and surpassing the 2021 high — yet deal count fell roughly 10%, as AI and energy-infrastructure mega-deals concentrated capital in fewer, far larger transactions.
How big is $2.84 trillion, really?
First-half global M&A hit $2.84 trillion, up 50% year-on-year and past the 2021 record.
Deal count, however, dropped roughly 10% — average deal size rose 64% to $115.8 million.
This means → the boom is not broad-based; a handful of mega-deals by a few giants are pulling the headline number up.
Who is spending all this money?
U.S. buyers accounted for 56% of global M&A value — the highest H1 share since 2000, per LSEG data.
The single largest deal: SpaceX's roughly $250 billion acquisition of AI developer xAI, plus a planned $60 billion purchase of another U.S. AI coding startup.
OpenAI raised about $110 billion — Amazon contributed $50 billion, Nvidia $30 billion, SoftBank $30 billion. Separately, Anthropic closed a $65 billion round in May.
In plain terms = the AI "arms race" has moved from R&D labs to the M&A table — top players are using capital to lock in position.
AI needs power — how is energy keeping up?
NextEra Energy agreed to acquire Dominion Energy for roughly $67 billion, targeting the electricity demand of AI data centers.
BlackRock-led investors committed over $10 billion to acquire U.S. utility AES.
This means → the M&A shock wave has reached upstream — whoever can supply power to data centers becomes an acquisition target.
Why is Japan's deal market bucking the trend?
Japanese M&A deal count rose 6% year-on-year to 1,933 — a historical record.
Total deal value, however, fell about 40%, skewed by large one-off transactions in the year-ago period.
The largest Japanese deal was SoftBank's investment in OpenAI; next was Mitsubishi Corp.'s roughly ¥1.2 trillion (about $7.3 billion) acquisition of U.S. natural-gas producer Aethon.
This reflects Japanese companies' determination to pursue overseas growth through M&A, even as a weaker yen raises acquisition costs.
Can this pace hold through H2?
Nomura senior managing director Kei Nitta said: "The massive spending by tech giants on AI and data centers has fueled M&A across related sectors — early signs of overheating are starting to show."
This means → the current M&A wave rests on two pillars — the AI narrative staying hot and financing costs staying low.
In plain terms = lots of money, concentrated targets, rising valuations — if any one of those shifts, the second half looks very different.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.