Dealmaker's Digest: A Top 10 Bulletin - June 2026

Deal Value Trends

Aggregate global monthly deal value¹ in May was up 18% from April to over $570 billion. The five largest deals in May accounted for 37% of total monthly value. Year-over-year, deal value was up 65%. 

Strategic buyer deal value drove May’s jump, up 61% month-over-month, to the highest strategic monthly value recorded in over six years. Year-over-year, strategic value was up 121%.

Financial, or sponsor, buyer deal value declined 43% from April to May to the second-lowest monthly value in the past year. Sponsor deal value was down 35% year-over-year. 

Deal Count Trends

Global deal count in May dropped 12% from April, furthering last month’s decline. With about 2,850 transactions, May was the lowest count in the past year. Year-over-year, deal count declined 26%.

Strategic buyer deal count in May was down 10% from April to just under 2,100 transactions. Year-over-year, strategic buyer deal count declined 29%.

Sponsor deal count in May was down 17% from April and was about 300 deals below the 13-month average. Year-over-year, sponsor deal count dropped 16%.

By Deal Count

• The technology industry remained at the top for U.S. M&A activity by deal count in May, continuing its five-year streak as the leading industry by volume, driven by investments in AI and software.²
• The industrials and business services sectors rounded out the most active sectors in May by deal count.

By Deal Value

• The technology industry also topped the charts for U.S. M&A activity by deal value in May, driven by over $68 billion in AI-related investments.
• The energy and natural resources sector came in second, bolstered by the $66.8 billion utility merger highlighted below. Real estate transactions came in third.

Monthly Blockbuster Deals

Largest U.S. Merger

NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy agreed to merge in an all-stock transaction valued at $66.8 billion.

Largest U.S. Minority Investment

Anthropic raised $65 billion from a group of investors led by Altimeter, Dragoneer, Greenoaks, Sequoia and others.³

Inbound U.S. M&A Activity

By deal value, inbound U.S. activity dropped 28% from April to May with eight deals between $1 billion and $5 billion, half of which were healthcare targets. However, year-over-year, inbound deal value was up 38%.

By deal count, acquisitions of U.S. targets by ex-U.S. buyers in May fell 23% from April to the lowest count in the last year. Year-over-year, inbound deal count was also down 15%.

• Canada- and UK-based acquirers tied for the largest number of inbound transactions in May (with 15 each), followed by Sweden (10). Germany was also a popular partner.

Outbound U.S. M&A Activity

By deal value, acquisitions of ex-U.S. targets by U.S. buyers in May dropped 60% from April to just over $22 billion with five deals between $1 billion and $5 billion. Year-over-year, outbound deal value was down 34%.

Outbound deal count decreased 11% from April to May to a new five-year low. Outbound deal count was down 28% year-over-year. 

• In May, U.S. acquirers looked predominantly to targets in the UK (35 deals), Canada (18) and Germany (16). France and Italy were also popular partners. 

TRANSACTION TRENDS: AI Boom Drives a New Wave of Utility M&A

• NextEra Energy's proposed $66.8 billion acquisition of Dominion Energy – which is poised to create the largest U.S. utility by a wide margin – is the latest in a wave of utility consolidation and demonstrates how a larger regulated utility base can facilitate buildouts to meet surging AI-driven electricity demand. 
• Post-close, approximately 80% of the combined entity’s pro forma earnings are expected to come from rate-regulated operations (the “wires and poles” business overseen by state regulators), up from roughly 70% for standalone NextEra. Dominion brings approximately 10 million customer accounts across high-growth jurisdictions (including Virginia and the Carolinas) with significant data center concentration.
• The expanded regulated base would give the combined entity the credit headroom to pursue unregulated generation and development opportunities outside Florida without risking a ratings downgrade. 
• The deal is part of a broader pattern. Transactions involving AES Corp., Constellation Energy, Cleco Power and Allete signal sector-wide momentum, while technology companies are increasingly engaging with power plant developers for dedicated data center energy supplies. With data centers projected to consume 9–17% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030 (up from ~4%–5% today), the competitive premium is shifting toward companies that can build new generation capacity at scale.

Implications for Public M&A

• The AI infrastructure buildout continues to accelerate, with ~$2.9 trillion in global CapEx expected through 2028.
• As end-market demand matures, bottlenecks are shifting from graphics processing units (GPUs) alone to power delivery, cooling and execution. KKR’s agreed sale of liquid-cooling provider CoolIT to Ecolab for $4.8 billion underscores how cooling infrastructure has proven investable in its own right. 
• Hyperscalers are pursuing a dual strategy of self-build and third-party leasing, sustaining demand for both owned campuses and sponsor-backed platforms. 
• Even the best-funded companies are turning to public markets to keep pace with the AI buildout: Alphabet is raising $80+ billion in new equity, and highly anticipated IPOs by SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI could make 2026 a record year for public capital raising.
  
• Capital efficiency remains a priority even amid record spending: Alphabet reported that Gemini server unit costs declined 78% over the course of 2025 through model optimizations and utilization improvements. 
• Microsoft has indicated that customer demand continues to exceed available capacity and that much of the GPU capacity it is procuring is already committed.
• Hyperscalers are integrating vertically across the full AI stack – from power generation to proprietary chip design to computing infrastructure – rather than relying on existing supply chains at any single layer. OpenAI and Softbank’s $500 million co-investment in SB Energy, alongside a 1.2-gigawatt lease, illustrates the trend extending into energy. 
• Read more from our Artificial Intelligence Q1 2026 Global Report.

For more information, please contact your usual Ropes & Gray attorney or reach out to a member of our M&A team below.