China leads 2026 H1 AI deals at 165 $100M+ rounds globally worth $3.8T, US tops by value
智东西 · wechat · 2026-09-08
Zhidongxi counted 165 nine-figure AI funding rounds globally in H1 2026, totaling RMB 2.7 trillion. China led with 77 rounds (RMB 126B); the US had 71 rounds worth RMB 2.46T (91%), driven by OpenAI ($232B), Anthropic ($95B) and xAI ($20B). Domestically, Beijing had the most rounds (42) while Hangzhou topped by value (RMB 50.7B) thanks to DeepSeek's RMB 50B raise. Top five recipients — DeepSeek, StepFun, Moonshot AI, Huashen Biotech and SiliconFlow — took 78% of the total. AI applications led by sector (43%), with video/3D generation and AI agents hottest. Seed/A-stage rounds dominate, and most funded firms were founded around 2023.
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