US Private Equity Breakdown, Q2 2026 (PitchBook)

Summary

• US PE dealmaking dropped 37.5% QoQ in Q2 2026, one of the steepest single-quarter contractions in the dataset.p.3
• Aggregate deal value settled at $177.3 billion across 2,384 announced and estimated transactions.p.5
• Software deal value fell to $10.7 billion, down 65.7% YoY.p.6
• Exit value fell to $102.6 billion, down 46.3% QoQ and 7.4% YoY.p.4
• YTD, $159.6 billion of capital was raised across 223 funds, on pace with 2025's muted totals.p.4
• US evergreen PE assets have nearly doubled over the past year to $99 billion.p.4
• Listing value rose 42.2% sequentially to $27.6 billion, and the count doubled to 12.p.4

Key insights

1. Energy YTD deal value is up 80.5% versus H1 2025, making it the most durable sector of the quarter.p.6
2. The FOMC held the federal funds rate at 3.50% to 3.75% for a fourth consecutive meeting in June.p.6
3. Add-ons made up roughly three-quarters of all buyout transactions, with an estimated 885 add-ons.p.7
4. Public-to-private value fell to $6.2 billion across 11 deals.p.7
5. Median US buyout entry EV/EBITDA closed 2025 at 12.5x, up from 9x in 2015, against 11.9x globally.p.9
6. Survey respondents ranked interest rates 59%, geopolitical risk 59% and AI disruption/opportunity 58% among top macro factors.p.15
7. Data readiness (26%) was the most cited impediment to accelerating AI adoption across portfolios.p.16
8. B2B assets generated $40.6 billion of exit value, roughly 45% of all realizations.p.19
9. Funds under $1 billion have accounted for only 16.7% of all capital raised so far in 2026.p.22
10. Only 23 first-time funds were raised in H1 2026, against a full-year average of 181 per year from 2021 to 2023.p.22