The $100M+ Round Is Now Just Your Typical Late-Stage Financing
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Late-stage startup fundraising has shifted higher: the median U.S. late-stage round rose from just over $50M in 2020 to about $100M today, and Crunchbase records 250 U.S. rounds of $100M+ so far in 2026 — half were $200M+ and 18 were $1B+. Valuations are rising with capital concentration driving record funding levels — 21 companies raised $100M+ at pre-money valuations of $10B+ and two AI firms (Anthropic and OpenAI) have confidential IPO filings that could approach $1 trillion, signaling stronger fundraising, valuation-driven market impact and adoption risks from concentrated deal flow.
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Back in 2018, in the early days of Crunchbase News, we created a category called the “Supergiant Round” to refer to startup financings of $100 million or more. Fast-forward to today, and those parameters look laughably puny.
Not only is a round of $100 million not remarkably large anymore, it’s not even atypical. Per Crunchbase data, the median U.S. late-stage round this year was exactly $100 million.
Moreover, if $100 million is supergiant, what do you call something more than 1,000x bigger, like OpenAI’s record-setting round this spring? That company’s chatbot suggests terms such as “leviathan,” “colussus” or “titan.” Another option would be to recognize that what was once a legit supergiant round is today just a humdrum, everyday kind of deal.
The $100M+ round over 10 years
The rise of the $100 million-plus round hasn’t been chronologically linear, as charted below:
Initially, the category gained traction in the late 2010s, as companies such as Uber, Rivian and WeWork scaled up late-stage financing in advance of plans for public offerings.
Around the peak of the 2021 bull market, the volume of “supergiant” rounds hit a cyclical peak. Dealmaking fell in subsequent years before picking up again with the rise of the AI funding wave.
Notably, more money than ever is now going into jumbo-sized rounds. However, as capital gets concentrated among a handful of hot names, deal volumes remain well below the prior peak.
Still, trends are looking up. So far this year, investors have backed 250 startup financings of $100 million or more. That puts 2026 on track for a year-over-year gain in deal count. Capital raised, meanwhile, is already at record-setting levels thanks to giant rounds for OpenAI, Anthropic and others.
Median round on the rise
In tandem, the size of the median late-stage round has also risen. Per Crunchbase data, the typical financing at this stage has roughly doubled since 2020, from just over $50 million to around $100 million.
And it’s not a small cohort either. So far this year, U.S. startups have secured 250 rounds of $100 million or more, per Crunchbase data. Of those, half were for $200 million or more. Eighteen were for $1 billion more.
Valuations moving higher too, obviously
Of course, you don’t get ginormous startup financings without rapidly escalating valuations as well. And this year has been exceptional in delivering those.
Among U.S. startups that raised $100 million or more this year, 21 had pre-money valuations of $10 billion or more, per Crunchbase data.1 Two of those — Anthropic and OpenAI — have filed confidentially for IPOs that could reportedly set valuations close to $1 trillion.
Bottom line: Startup investors aren’t just putting unprecedented sums into giant rounds; they’re expecting record-setting returns as well. We’ll see in coming months if public markets deliver.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
Includes Cerebras Systems, which raised pre-IPO funding before going public last month. ↩
