Capital is concentrating. Deal count is flat. Round sizes keep climbing.
The venture market of May 2026 looks nothing like 2021. Back then, capital spread across thousands of seed rounds. Today it piles into a smaller number of larger bets — primarily in AI infrastructure, defense, and enterprise software with clear revenue traction. Here are the notable rounds from this week's deal flow.
Notable Rounds: May 2026
| Company | Amount | Stage | Sector | Lead Investor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anduril Industries | $1.5B | Late | Defense Tech | General Catalyst |
| Scale AI | $1B | Series F | AI Data / Defense | Meta / Accel |
| Mistral AI | $600M | Series C | Foundation Models | General Atlantic |
| Perplexity AI | $500M | Series D | AI Search | SoftBank Vision Fund |
| Physical Intelligence | $400M | Series B | Robotics AI | Thrive Capital |
| Cohere | $250M | Series D | Enterprise AI | Salesforce Ventures |
| Harvey | $100M | Series C | Legal AI | Andreessen Horowitz |
| Cognition AI | $175M | Series B | AI Dev Tools | Founders Fund |
Deal Flow Patterns
Rounds above $500M are now routine — five of the eight deals above exceed that threshold
Defense tech accounted for ~$2.5B of this week's total, reflecting sustained Pentagon and allied government demand
Foundation model companies continue commanding premium valuations despite ongoing commoditization concerns at the API layer
Vertical AI (legal, coding, robotics) is consolidating — category leaders are pulling away from second-place players
What to Watch
IPO window
Harvey and Perplexity are both IPO-track companies. If either files, it signals the public markets are re-opening for AI-native businesses.
Defense contract velocity
Scale AI and Anduril wins depend on DoD contract awards. Watch Q2 defense budget allocations for timing signals on when revenue hits.
Robotics timing
Physical Intelligence and peers are 12–18 months from meaningful commercial deployment. The funding is ahead of the revenue — that spread will narrow in late 2026.
Foundation model consolidation
Mistral and Cohere are raising to stay competitive with OpenAI and Anthropic. Watch whether either pursues M&A or an enterprise partnership as an alternative path.
Track startup funding benchmarks on the Funding 2025 dashboard. For VC fundraise data, see VC Universe at Value Add VC.