Global venture capital funding slid 21% in the second quarter of 2025 to $101.05 billion from $128.4 billion in Q1, a drop driven largely by OpenAI's $40 billion megadeal earlier this year.

Stripping out that outlier, Q2 activity held up well, underpinned by steady investor appetite in AI, defence tech, and space tech. Adjusted for the megadeal, the data poin