The US venture capital (VC) funding value nearly tripled year-on-year (YoY) in January-August 2026, rising 197% while deal count grew just 4%. A handful of mega-rounds, led by OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, now shape the market. The US lifted its share of global funding value to 74%, while China narrows the gap on deal volume, signaling a widening divide in capital scale, reveals GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The US continues to be the top market for VC funding activity in terms of both deal volume and value and this growth further strengthened its global dominance.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database revealed that the US accounted for 31% share of the total number of VC deals announced globally during January-August 2026, up from 30% share during January-August 2025. Meanwhile, its share of global value jumped from 65% to 74%.

Some of the notable VC funding deals announced in the US during January-August 2026 included $122 billion secured by OpenAI, $65 billion and $30 billion raised by Anthropic in two separate funding rounds, and $20 billion raised by xAI.

While the global deal count edged down by 0.3%, the US expanded deal activity, reinforcing its relative resilience amid an otherwise broadly stable global funding environment. Funding value growth in the US also outpaced the 161% increase in global funding value. And majority of this global growth is driven by the US.

China remained the closest peer by deal volume, accounting for 23% of global activity after its transaction count increased 31% YoY. China’s growth rate in deal volume substantially exceeded that of the US, narrowing the activity gap between the two markets. China’s funding value rose 223%, also exceeding the US growth rate.

However, China represented only 10% of global funding value, compared with the US’s 74% share. This contrast underlines the much larger average scale of financing secured in the US market.

The UK and India showed more mixed results. UK deal volume increased by 1%, broadly maintaining its position with a 7% share of global activity, while funding value expanded 130% and accounted for 4% of global value. India also held a 7% share of global deal volume, but transaction activity declined 12% and funding value fell 2%. India’s accounted for 2% share of global funding value.

Bose concludes: “The US is likely to remain the anchor of global venture funding as large financing rounds continue to dominate capital flows. China’s faster growth in deal volume and value merits close monitoring, but the scale gap remains wide. Meanwhile, muted activity in markets like India suggests global funding momentum will stay uneven.”

Note: Historic data may change in case some deals get added to previous months because of a delay in disclosure of information in the public domain.