By Joe Stonor
Global equity fundraising topped $729.4 billion in the first half of 2026, boosted by SpaceX's record IPO, marking the second-best start to the year on record, according to Mergermarket data.
Tech accounted for around $302 billion of that. It's only the third time tech fundraising passed the $100 billion mark at the year midpoint-the other two were in 2000 and in 2021. Neither period augured well for the near-term performance of equity markets.
The top of the dot-com bubble came in March 2000, while the IPO bonanza of 2021 preceded a Nasdaq crash in the first half of 2022.
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