CB Insights reports that artificial intelligence continued to dominate venture activity in the second quarter of 2026, even as overall funding totals declined from the prior period’s peak. Anthropic alone claimed three of the five largest financings of the period, including raises of $50 billion, $10 billion, and $5 billion. Completing the top five were Project Prometheus with a $12 billion Series B and DeepSeek with a $7.5 billion Series A. AI chip specialist Cerebras nearly tripled headcount in the same timeframe before exiting at a $40.6 billion valuation. DeepSeek’s $59.2 billion valuation marked the highest among the new entrants and helped drive Asia’s stronger relative performance.