Corporate-backed investment surged to a new monthly record in May, highlighting how a handful of mega-rounds are reshaping the venture landscape and concentrating capital in frontier technologies.
After April marked a low point for corporate-backed startup funding rounds so far in 2026, May swung sharply in the opposite direction. Several mega rounds, led by generative AI chatbot developer Anthropic’s $50bn series H, lifted the total raised through corporate-backed funding rounds to $86bn — the second-highest monthly figure of the year so far.
The month recorded 442 corporate-backed rounds – representing a 4.5% increase on the number recorded in the previous month and 30.8% increase since May 2025.
Oishani Mitra
Oishani Mitra is the content manager for Global Corporate Venturing.
