Global startup funding reached $92 billion in May, the second-largest monthly total on record, as Anthropic's $50 billion raise and Cerebras' successful IPO signaled momentum in the exit market.

Anthropic raised $50 billion in May, accounting for 54% of the month's total global venture funding of $92 billion. The funding pushed Anthropic's valuation to $965 billion on the Crunchbase Unicorn Board, making it the second-most highly valued private company after SpaceX at $1.25 trillion.

Cerebras, a chip company benefiting from growing demand for AI inference, went public at $185 per share and opened at $350, and was trading around $225 as of June 2, 2026. May's startup funding was up 284% year over year from $24 billion.

Funding to the AI sector totaled $72 billion, or 79% of all funding last month. Ten companies raised $17 billion in rounds of $500 million and above, including Anduril Industries ($5 billion), StepFun and Moonshot AI (each more than $2 billion), Cognition ($1 billion), and Sierra ($950 million).

Anthropic filed confidentially for an IPO on June 1 and has raised $125 billion in equity funding to date. SpaceX publicly filed its prospectus in May, stating its intention to raise $80 billion via IPO.