Global dealmaking hits record $2.8 trillion as mega-mergers surge

Mega-mergers carried global dealmaking to a record $2.8 trillion in the first half of 2026, even as the number of announced transactions fell 9% to about 24,000, a six-year low. That split shows a market being driven by a narrow set of giant bets rather than a broad pickup in corporate confidence.

The concentration at the top of the market was extreme. Forty-seven deals above $10 billion accounted for more than $1.3 trillion and nearly half of global volume, an all-time record, while LSEG’s 2025 review had already shown how powerful the mega-deal cycle had become, with 68 transactions above $10 billion totaling $1.5 trillion. The current surge therefore looks less like a sudden breakout than a continuation of a deal market already built around scale, financing power and companies willing to reshape entire industries in one move.

The clearest example is NextEra Energy’s $66.8 billion all-stock acquisition of Dominion Energy, a combination that would create the world’s largest regulated utility by market value. The merged company would serve roughly 10 million customer accounts across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina and operate about 110 gigawatts of generation capacity. On the tech side, SpaceX’s roughly $60 billion Cursor purchase underscored how capital-rich private buyers are still willing to pursue transformative transactions in sectors tied to artificial intelligence, software and infrastructure.

That activity has not been evenly spread. LSEG said technology accounted for 33% of global M&A transactions in the first two months of 2026, with 47% of those deals announced in the United States. Deal value in the Americas reached $440 billion in January and February, up 78% from a year earlier, while LSEG described the first quarter as a turning point defined by widening divergence across size, geography and timing. In other words, the rebound has been strongest where capital intensity is highest and where strategic pressure to consolidate is greatest.

Bankers say the backdrop has helped. JPMorgan’s Jay Hofmann said companies have shown “tremendous resilience” amid geopolitical, monetary, macroeconomic and microeconomic volatility, and that financing is available in size. That confidence has coincided with a softer merger-review climate in Washington, where the Federal Trade Commission’s revised HSR filing thresholds took effect on February 17, 2026, and advisers say antitrust agencies have been more open to negotiated remedies in some cases even as scrutiny remains high in technology and AI infrastructure. For consumers and workers, the consequences will be clearest in the sectors now concentrating fastest: regulated utilities, digital infrastructure and the technology supply chain.