PitchBook published its Q2 US VC Valuations report on 10 August. Megadeals took 87.5% of the dollars deployed in the first half of 2026. PitchBook defines those as rounds of $100m or more. AI is the primary driver of that concentration, though the figure describes deal size rather than sector.
The AI premium is real and it shows up in two separate measures. AI companies posted a median valuation step-up of 2.2x this year against 1.6x for non-AI. Separately, AI pre-money valuations run roughly double non-AI at Series A. By Series D and later that comparison reaches 6.6x.
The velocity number is the one to keep
Emily Zheng, a senior research analyst at PitchBook, pointed Fortune at the late-stage figure. Median velocity of value creation at Series D and beyond was $108.9m in 2025. This year it reached $1,028m. That is close to a tenfold rise in twelve months.
“Top AI companies like Anthropic are driving this growth, as its valuation grew 5.3x in just eight months,” Zheng said. Our own reporting has tracked that climb. Median AI pre-money valuation at Series D and later now sits at $3.95bn.
