Q1 2026 Global M&A: The Loudest Quarter on Record

The broader M&A market

Global M&A opened 2026 at a historic pitch. Total deal value reached an estimated $1.6 trillion in Q1, up 8.8% quarter-over-quarter and 50.6% year-over-year — a new high in PitchBook's data series. Deal count landed at an estimated 13,877 transactions, up 18.3% year-over-year and matching the record set in Q4 2025. PitchBook calls it "the loudest quarter on record," and the label fits: value skewed to the top end of the market and included the largest single transaction ever recorded.

Beneath the headline, the quarter was a story of two halves. Financing was abundant and conditions ripe early on, but sentiment deteriorated later as concerns mounted around private credit and as the Iran war fed energy-driven inflation. Deals kept closing — some very large — but investors turned selective and pricing rose. High-quality companies can still finance; lower-rated credits may have to wait. North America was especially strong, with large-cap deals lifting aggregate value and deal count reaching levels not seen since Q1 2022. Cross-border flows tilted decisively toward Europe as a destination — North American acquirers deployed roughly $117.5 billion into European targets against about $100 billion flowing the other way, aided by cheaper euro-denominated financing.

Valuations reflect that enthusiasm. The trailing-12-month (TTM) median EV/EBITDA multiple now stands at 10.7x, up from 9.8x in full-year 2024 and the highest since the 2021 peak of 10.5x — comfortably above the 2017–2019 normalization benchmark of 9.9x.

Source: PitchBook, Q1 2026 Global M&A Report • As of March 31, 2026 • Geography: North America and Europe

The most consequential shift is the return of corporate buyers. The corporate-led median jumped from 8.3x in 2024 to 9.8x on a TTM basis, compressing the PE premium from more than four turns to 2.8 turns. Strategics, armed with strong balance sheets, now compete head-to-head with sponsors, making operational value creation the differentiator. Multiple expansion is concentrated at the top: deals above $5 billion trade at 13.9x while sub-$100 million deals remain anchored near 8x. The US–Europe gap also widened, with US multiples at 11.6x versus Europe's 9.9x — the widest spread since 2022.

Source: PitchBook, Q1 2026 Global M&A Report • As of March 31, 2026 • Geography: North America and Europe

Drilling into technology M&A

Technology sat at the center of the quarter's record — but the story requires a careful read. IT M&A deal value reached an estimated $409.5 billion in Q1 alone, the highest quarterly value on record, powered almost entirely by a single transaction: SpaceX's $250 billion acquisition of xAI — the largest M&A deal ever, valuing the combined entity at $1.3 trillion. Deal count of roughly 2,012 was healthy but not a record.

Source: PitchBook, Q1 2026 Global M&A Report • As of March 31, 2026 • Geography: Global

Strip out that one deal and the picture inverts. Excluding xAI–SpaceX, IT deal value fell an estimated 52.5% quarter-over-quarter — a sharp reset driven by AI-disruption concerns weighing on software valuations and by persistent difficulty securing debt for large software LBOs. The private credit market remains under strain: redemption requests have made it harder to underwrite megacap software buyouts even where sponsors have identified attractive targets.

Tech valuations echo the caution. The median IT EV/EBITDA multiple compressed to 12.1x on a TTM basis, down from 13.9x in 2024, with EV/revenue easing to 2.7x. Notably, most of the quarter's large tech deals were struck early in the year, before macro uncertainty peaked — raising the possibility that any real pullback is delayed rather than avoided. AI is the fault line running through the sector — simultaneously the thesis behind the quarter's marquee deals and the disruption risk repricing legacy software, splitting the market into assets investors will pay up for and those they will not.

Source: PitchBook, Q1 2026 Global M&A Report • As of March 31, 2026 • Geography: North America and Europe

Underneath the megadeal, the tech deal machine kept running through familiar channels. Sponsors pursued take-privates: Tidemark, Hg and General Atlantic agreed to take OneStream private for $6.4 billion, and Mindbody with Vista Equity and Sixth Street acquired EGYM for $7.5 billion — both framed around advancing AI capabilities. Corporates leaned into carveouts, a structure that resurfaces when uncertainty rises: Renesas sold its timing business to SiTime for $3 billion at more than 10x revenue, and Accenture agreed to acquire Ookla for $1.2 billion to strengthen its network-intelligence capabilities.

The takeaway

Headline tech M&A has never looked bigger, but the strength is narrow. One historic AI-and-space deal is masking a real contraction in core software dealmaking, squeezed by AI-disruption fears and a strained private credit market. For founders and owners, the signal is nuanced: scale, market leadership and AI relevance command premium multiples and buyer competition, while smaller, less differentiated software assets face a tougher financing and pricing environment. Whether 10.7x is a new baseline or an overshoot is the question hanging over the rest of 2026.

All data and quoted figures sourced from PitchBook, Q1 2026 Global M&A Report (sponsored by Liberty GTS and DFIN), published April 29, 2026. Figures are PitchBook estimates as of March 31, 2026; deal-level details (including the SpaceX–xAI transaction) are as characterized in that report.