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Global M&A Deals Hit Record $2.8 Trillion in First Half of 2026 Amid AI Competition

Mergers and acquisitions worldwide surged to $2.84 trillion from January to June 2026, driven by U.S. tech firms vying for dominance in artificial intelligence and related sectors.

Jul 30, 2026, 5:11 PM Nikkei Asia

AIorganization Globaltopic Amid AI Competitiontopic Deals Hit Recordperson First Halfperson Nikkei Asiaorganization TOKYOgeography Trilliontopic USgeography January-Junetopic Mergerstopic Reutersorganization

Warming stripes graphic depicting annual mean global temperatures (1850-2018, from World Meteorological Organization data)), said in the reference to have been produced for the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) provisional State of the Climate report General notes: Credit for general concept of warming stripes : climate scientist Ed Hawkins, University of Reading , U.K. Data values are visualized using color rather than locations of points on a graph. Horizontal scale is time, from 1850 (left) to 2018 (right). Data is global (not for a locality). This is an early, original chart from Dr. Hawkins, and should not be updated as the years pass. Update: newer versions of the warming stripes under more permissive CC‑BY‑4.0 licensing available here: showyourstripes.info · Photo by Ed Hawkins, climate scientist at University of Reading · Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 · Source: wikimedia

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) globally reached a record $2.84 trillion in the first half of 2026, surpassing the previous first-half record set in 2021. This surge is largely attributed to major U.S. technology companies competing to lead in artificial intelligence (AI) and adjacent industries such as energy.

Among the notable deals, SpaceX's acquisition of xAI stood out as the most valuable M&A transaction during this period.

The trend highlights how the race for AI leadership is influencing broader market activities and investment strategies worldwide.

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