AI investment lifts first-half global M&A to five-year high

2026-07-30

Money flows into AI

According to data from London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) dating back to 2000, global M&A totalled $2.8473 trillion in January-June, up 50% from a year earlier. It was the highest level for a first half in five years, as intensifying competition in AI development lifted big-ticket deals.

The average deal size rose 64% to $115.82 million, about 40% larger than five years earlier. Deal count, however, fell 10% from a year earlier. Transactions with U.S. buyers stood out, and the share of global deal value accounted for by U.S. companies rose to 56%, the highest on record and above the level in the same period of 2019.

SpaceX's acquisition of AI developer xAI was the biggest M&A deal in the first half. The purchase price was not disclosed, but it is believed to be worth about $250 billion. In June, it also decided to acquire a U.S. startup that develops AI services for programming for $60 billion.

Power and data center restructuring

Power-hungry data centers are indispensable for AI development, and restructuring is also advancing in the related energy industry. U.S. utility NextEra Energy will acquire peer Dominion Energy for about $67 billion. BlackRock and others will also jointly invest more than $10 billion in the acquisition of U.S. power giant AES.

Funding rounds for major AI companies also came one after another. OpenAI raised $110 billion, with Amazon.com investing $50 billion, while Nvidia and SoftBank Group each invested $30 billion. Anthropic also received a $65 billion investment from investment firms and others in May. Keijo Nitta, executive officer overseeing the M&A division at Nomura Securities, said, 'Massive AI and data center investment by tech giants is the catalyst, and M&A is becoming more active in related industries. Some areas are also showing signs of overheating.'

Japanese firms post record deal count

M&A by Japanese companies was also active, with the number of deals rising 6% to 1,933, a record high. Even in an environment where a weak yen inflates the cost of overseas acquisitions, companies have not changed their stance of placing M&A at the core of their growth strategies.

Deal value fell 40%. The previous year had seen a string of large transactions, including Toyota Motor and others taking Toyota Industries private for about 5.9 trillion yen and NTT's full subsidiary takeover of NTT Data Group for about 2.3 trillion yen, and the comparison reflected that base effect. The biggest deal was SoftBank Group's investment in OpenAI. That was followed by Mitsubishi Corp's acquisition of U.S. natural gas giant Aethon for about 1.2 trillion yen. Alongside acquisitions of overseas companies, sales of subsidiaries and businesses tied to reviews of earnings structures also stood out, and investment funds are becoming more prominent.

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