Global M&A momentum builds in 2026 as megadeals surge, but acquirers confront a new AI “winner’s paradox”—Bain & Company M&A Midyear Report

NEW YORK & LONDON-June 29, 2026-The great rebound in global mergers and acquisitions that began last year is proving no flash in the pan. After M&A rose 40% to $4.9 trillion in 2025 - the second-highest annual total on record - global deal value continued to climb in the first five months of 2026, surging 41% year-over-year to $2.4 trillion in the period, and putting the market on track for its second-highest year ever, Bain & Company reports today in its 2026 M&A Midyear Report.

The M&A resurgence remains broad-based across markets and sectors and is grounded in the strategic transformations companies need to compete in a rapidly changing world, Bain concludes. The wave of dealmaking in 2026 is being propelled by executives making strategic choices for long-term efficiency, resilience, adaptability and growth as they respond to disruptions including the accelerating transition to an AI-driven economy, slowing economic growth and higher inflation, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz - the latest manifestation of the emerging post-global order. In this fast-changing business landscape, Bain finds that deals increasingly need to move the needle on performance to stay on the short list of corporate priorities as corporate leaders also navigate competing demands for capital.

At the same time, Bain also cautions that acquirers in M&A transactions, especially those pursuing the megadeals that now dominate the market, confront a new "winner's paradox": how to pair an ambitious M&A agenda with the transformation programs that AI disruption demands. As companies buy to create enhanced scale and resilience for a fast-changing world, many are simultaneously taking the early steps of AI transformations. In turn, Bain notes that the combined challenges are prompting executives to ask how they can successfully manage an AI transformation alongside, or through, a massive integration of two businesses, but also how they could afford not to do so.

"The great M&A rebound of 2025 was no one-off blip, and the strategic logic driving it has only intensified," said Suzanne Kumar, executive vice president of Bain & Company's global M&A practice. "Companies are pursuing bold deals to secure the scale and capability they need for a fast-changing world. The new challenge is that the AI boom fueling many of these deals, well beyond the confines of the technology sector, is also creating a paradox: it has rarely been harder to get large, complex transactions right, yet they represent the single biggest opportunity if you do."

A broad-based upturn across sectors and markets

Strategic M&A value rose 36% year-to-date, even as overall valuations held flat at a median 11.6 times enterprise value/EBITDA and deal count ticked up by only a modest 2%, Bain notes. All strategic sectors saw dealmaking expand, with energy & natural resources, industrials, and healthcare & life sciences contributing the most growth in absolute deal value. Financial sponsors had a slower start, meanwhile, with deal value down 9% through May. Venture capital and corporate venture capital deal value, by contrast, surged by 206%, powered by OpenAI's latest $122 billion funding round and a 36% increase in deal count.

Megadeals continue to lead the strategic market as companies buy scale and capability to equip themselves a fast-changing and turbulent global business environment, Bain reports. Deals worth more than $10 billion grew 52% in number and 53% in value year-over-year. Their funding mix has shifted to a historical high of 35% stock-plus-cash, pushing the share of all-cash deal value to a cyclical low of 55%.

Regionally, Europe became a global M&A hot spot in the first half of the year as companies pursued strategic deals to sharpen their local and global competitiveness. Megadeals drove a 77% year-over-year gain across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) through May 31, as European companies announced transactions spanning domestic consolidation, regional scale, and global reach. Orange, Bouygues, and Iliad's $24 billion offer for Altice France exemplifies domestic consolidation; Italy's UniCredit revived its approach to Germany's Commerzbank to build regional scale; and Finland's Kone launched a $34.4 billion bid for Germany's TK Elevator-combining TK's US exposure with Kone's strength in Asia-Pacific to create a leading global player.

AI creates the "winner's paradox" for M&A strategies

AI's impact on dealmaking is extending well beyond the technology sector. The proposed $119 billion merger of US utilities NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy is driven in part by the explosive growth in energy-hungry data centers, with the companies emphasizing how the operating and financing benefits of their combined scale will help build the power generation required to meet surging large-load demand.

For CFOs and other corporate executives focused on delivering value from complex M&A, the paradox is acute: how to support an AI transformation alongside a massive integration - and how to afford not to attempt to deliver this. Bain's analysis concludes that the leaders of winning companies need to define a multi-year capital plan that draws a clear line between strategy and capital spending, addressing both an M&A-enabled growth strategy and investments in AI-enabled workflow redesign and workforce modernization.

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