Last Updated on July 18, 2026 by Fiza Khurram
The Strongest Dealmaking Start Since Records Began
Global mergers and acquisitions activity has posted its strongest first half on record, according to LSEG data, with announced transactions totalling $2.8 trillion in the six months through June up 48% from the same period in 2025 and the highest year-to-date total since records began in 1980. The surge caps a broader rebound that started in 2025, when total dealmaking activity jumped nearly 40% to a record $4.9 trillion for the full year, surpassing the previous high of $4.86 trillion set in 2021.
Fewer Deals, Much Bigger Checks
What distinguishes the current boom from prior cycles is its lopsided composition: dramatically higher dollar values paired with a falling overall deal count. Roughly 24,000 transactions were announced during the first half of 2026, down 9% year over year and the weakest first-half deal count in six years. Yet 47 individual deals worth more than $10 billion were announced in the same period, representing over $1.3 trillion in combined value nearly half of all global M&A volume and an all-time record concentration in true mega-deals.
| Metric | H1 2026 Figure | Year-over-Year Change |
| Global announced M&A value | $2.8 trillion | +48% vs. H1 2025 |
| Number of announced deals | ~24,000 | -9% (six-year low) |
| Deals above $10 billion | 47 deals, $1.3T+ combined | All-time record concentration |
| Cross-border M&A | $893 billion | +62% vs. H1 2025; strongest start since 2018 |
| Technology sector M&A | $649 billion | Largest sector by announced value |
| Global investment-grade debt issuance for deals | $3.4 trillion | +10%; highest year-to-date total on record |
AI Is Reshaping Deal Logic Beyond the Tech Sector
Technology remained the single largest sector for announced transactions, but dealmakers describe AI’s influence as extending far beyond software and chip companies. One striking example is the proposed $119 billion merger of two major U.S. utilities, driven substantially by the explosive growth in energy-hungry AI data centers and the operational benefits of combined scale in meeting surging electricity demand. As Latham & Watkins’ global M&A vice chair Sam Newhouse put it, deal activity increasingly splits between pure AI and AI-adjacent industries on one side, and what he calls the “HALO” side heavy assets, low obsolescence, big infrastructure and big industry that continues to consolidate regardless of AI’s direct impact.
Bain & Company’s midyear report frames this as a “winner’s paradox” for corporate leadership: companies must now simultaneously fund an ambitious M&A agenda and a costly AI transformation, forcing CFOs to draw much clearer lines between strategic acquisitions and AI-driven capital spending than in prior cycles.
Private Capital Steps into a Bigger Role
Financing for this year’s deal wave has been unusually plentiful. Global investment-grade corporate debt issuance reached $3.4 trillion in the first half, a 10% year-over-year increase and the highest year-to-date total on record, giving acquirers ready access to capital even as private equity now accounts for roughly 40% of global M&A activity, according to Goldman Sachs. Sovereign wealth funds have also stepped up, increasingly acting as lead investors in large transactions rather than passive co-investors, a shift that is broadening the pool of capital available for the biggest deals even as the private credit market now valued at roughly $2.1 trillion continues to expand rapidly.
Corporate Simplification Is the Other Half of the Story
Alongside the acquisition wave, 2026 has also produced record levels of corporate separation activity, as companies streamline sprawling portfolios to sharpen strategic focus. Prominent examples include a major U.S. media conglomerate’s planned spin-off of its broadcast and entertainment arm, an industrial giant’s proposed three-way corporate split, and a large consumer goods company’s sale of its food division to a rival. As one senior banker put it, investors have grown considerably less tolerant of business diversification that once was celebrated as risk mitigation, now viewing it instead as a source of unwanted complexity.
Where Momentum Goes from Here
Dealmakers across major investment banks describe the pipeline as still building, citing friendlier regulatory conditions in both the U.S. and Europe, proposed governance reforms in Japan designed to push cash-rich corporates toward more active dealmaking, and growing boardroom appetite for transformational rather than incremental moves. Some senior bankers believe 2026 could ultimately eclipse the post-pandemic M&A peak of 2021 if the current pace holds through year-end a notable statement given that, even adjusted for inflation, this year’s “record” arguably still trails a handful of previous boom years.