$10 Billion Private Valuation? Pshaw: "2026’s decacorn class on track to surpass 2021 record"

From PitchBook, July 24:

Nineteen startups crossed the $10 billion valuation mark as AI mega-deals concentrate capital at the top. 

Newly minted US decacorns are on track to surpass 2021’s record of 22 by the end of this year. Already, 19startups have crossed the $10 billion valuation mark in 2026, eclipsing 2025’s full-year tally of 18, according to PitchBook data.

The trend reflects a broader resurgence in the venture market driven by mega-deals, especially as investors pile into AI startups insatiably.

Mega-deals, or rounds of at least $100 million, accounted for 87.5% of the $412.7 billion VCs invested in startups in the first half of 2026. That total has already surpassed last year’s cumulative deal value of $319.2 billion.

There are now 63 active decacorns in the US, up from 53 last year and 26 in 2021.

The latest crop of decacorns is dominated by AI startups. SambaNova Systems, a chip manufacturer specializing in AI inference tech, crossed the threshold earlier this month when it raised $1 billion in a Series F round led by General Atlantic at an $11 billion valuation.

Newly minted 2026 decacorns

Baseten

San Francisco

Deal date: June 22

Series: Series F

Total raised: $2.09B

Lead investors: Altimeter Capital Management, Conviction Partners, Sands Capital, Spark Capital, Wellington Management

Post-money valuation: $13B

Description: Developer of AI inference infrastructure designed to deploy and optimize machine learning models at scale.

Cerebras Systems

Sunnyvale, CA

Deal date: January 28

Series: Series H

Total raised: $2.92B

Lead investors: Tiger Global

Post-money valuation: $23B

Description: Designer of AI infrastructure for training and inference. The company builds large semiconductors as well as AI systems to power, cool and feed the processor's data.

Clear Street

New York, NY

Deal date: January 16

Series:

Total raised: $1.48B

Lead investors: Baillie Gifford, SBI Holdings

Post-money valuation: $12B

Description: Clear Street is a financial infrastructure technology company that develops a cloud-native capital markets platform based on a real-time ledger.

....MUCH MORE