February was the largest month in venture history, thanks notably to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Waymo

In February, global venture capital reached $189 billion—marking the highest amount ever invested in startups in a single month. However, 83% of that funding went to just three companies: OpenAI, Anthropic, and Waymo, according to new Crunchbase data.

OpenAI’s $110 billion round, the largest venture funding round ever raised by a private company, was the cornerstone of the month. Anthropic secured $30 billion in a deal that ranks as the third-largest venture transaction on record, while Waymo raised $16 billion. Together, these three rounds totaled $156 billion, leaving the rest of the global startup ecosystem to split the remaining $33 billion.

February’s $189 billion haul equals roughly 45% of all global venture funding in 2025—a pace that, if even partially sustained, would break annual records.

This scenario unfolded against a jarring backdrop: The same week those mega-rounds were announced, AI-related anxiety triggered a massive drop in public markets, wiping out approximately $1 trillion to $2 trillion in software and tech market value within days. Software and services companies were at the epicenter, while Big Tech leaders including [redacted names] lost more than $1 trillion in market cap as investors questioned whether massive AI capital expenditures would ever deliver returns.

Nevertheless, year-over-year comparisons are staggering on paper—February’s funding was up nearly 780% from the $21.5 billion raised the previous year. Without the three mega-rounds, though, venture activity looks far more ordinary. Seed-stage funding actually fell about 11% year over year in February to $2.6 billion, even as the big rounds pushed overall venture capital to a record month.

The divergence between blockbuster totals at the top and contraction at the bottom has been a trend in venture capital for the better part of three years, per past Crunchbase reports. After the 2021 boom sent deal counts and dollar volumes to records across all stages, the market began cooling sharply in 2022 and has redistributed capital upward ever since. Median and average round sizes at seed, Series A, and Series B stages have declined each year since 2024, even as deal volumes have struggled to recover.

AI now makes up the majority of the venture market. AI-related startups accounted for $171 billion—or 90%—of all global venture funding in February. U.S.-based companies took in $174 billion (92% of the total), up from roughly 59% a year earlier. This concentration highlights how AI capital has clustered in a small set of U.S. hubs, with a handful of exceptions like a Germany-based firm.