Global deal value reached $2.4 trillion in the first five months of 2026, up 41% from a year earlier, according to Bain & Company’s 2026 M&A Midyear Report.
At that pace, the full year would top $5.3 trillion. That is just short of the all-time record of $5.6 trillion set in 2020. It also builds on 2025, already the second-highest year on record, when activity rose 40% to $4.9 trillion.
Bain says companies are buying scale and resilience in the face of AI-powered business models, slower economic growth, persistent inflation and geopolitical instability.
Megadeals lead
Transactions above $10 billion rose 52% in number and 53% in value compared with the same stretch last year. The funding mix moved too. Stock-plus-cash combinations hit a historical high of 35% of deal value, while all-cash deals fell to a cyclical low of 55%.
Energy, industrials, and healthcare and life sciences added the most growth in absolute terms. The proposed $119 billion merger of US utilities NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy is one example. Both companies cited demand from energy-hungry data centers as a reason for combining.
Europe stood out. Deal value across EMEA rose 77% year over year through May, driven by domestic consolidation and cross-border bids for global reach.
Financial sponsors started slower, with buyout value down 9% through May. Venture and corporate venture activity jumped 206% in value, helped in part by OpenAI’s $122 billion funding round.
The “winner’s paradox”
Bain’s name for the catch is the “winner’s paradox.” Companies that win big deals are also being pushed to overhaul their operations for AI, which strains management attention, integration teams and capital budgets.
“Companies are pursuing bold deals to secure the scale and capability they need for a fast-changing world,” said Suzanne Kumar, executive vice president of Bain’s global M&A practice. “The new challenge is that the AI boom fueling many of these deals, well beyond the confines of the technology sector, is also creating a paradox: it has rarely been harder to get large, complex transactions right, yet they represent the single biggest opportunity if you do.”
Deals above $10 billion take about seven months on average to go from announcement to close. The bulk of cost savings then takes another 24 to 36 months. AI tools, the report says, let acquirers identify and validate cost synergies two to three times faster than traditional due diligence, with more ambitious targets.
“Integration has always carried both peril and promise, but the AI overlay is raising the stakes on both sides,” Kumar said.
