The numbers tell a story of structural transformation, not cyclical rebound.
Global Capital Deployment
- $366.8B — Global VC Deployment 2025
- 65% — AI Share of US Deal Value ($192.7B into AI)
- $250.2B — US Private AI Investment (68% of global total)
Unicorn Creation
- 100+ — New Unicorns Created in 2025
- 46 — Companies reaching $1B+ in under 3 years
- $39B — Raised collectively by fast unicorns
- 308 — AI Unicorns Globally (OpenAI $500B, Anthropic $183B)
Valuation Dynamics
- +228% — Venture-Growth Valuations YoY
- $25M — Median AI Pre-money Valuation (up from $15M in 2024)
- $67.7B — VC-Backed Exits (best since 2021)
Defense Tech Emergence
- $48B+ — Defense Tech Deployed 2025
- 10 — New Defense Unicorns (more than 2010-2015 combined)
- $1T+ — US Defense Budget 2026
Founder Economics
- 53% — Capital to Repeat Founders (up from 21% in 2019)
- 65% — Faster First Financing (AI vs non-AI median age)
- +682% — Secondary SPV Growth since 2023
Top Valuations
- OpenAI: $500B
- Anthropic: $183B
- SpaceX: $350B
- Anduril: $30.5B
- Cursor: $29.3B
- Kalshi: $11B
The Story: AI captured majority of capital → Defense tech institutionalized → Liquidity returning unevenly → New normal emerged.
This is part of a comprehensive analysis. Read the full analysis on The Business Engineer.
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