With 2025 coming to a close, investors may be wondering what industries could take the spotlight in 2026. Which industries should investors keep an eye on as the year begins? 2025 saw advancements in defense tech, artificial intelligence, clean energy, electric vehicles, and more, but what could be the highlights of next year? In this blog, learn more about 2026 trends and industries to watch.
2026 Trends and Industries to Watch
2026 Trends to Watch
Megarounds
One trend that manifested in 2025 was megarounds, or startups bringing in $100 million or more in funding. According to Crunchbase as of October 2025, an estimated 70% of all U.S. startup funding went to megarounds, an all-time high. While the total amount of funding raised in $100M+ rounds was still lower than 2021’s peak, the overall percentage of 70% going to $100M+ rounds was greater than 2021’s 60% figure. In 2025, these megarounds were concentrated in AI companies like OpenAI and others. As we move into 2026 and AI continues to be a hot topic, it’s possible that megarounds could continue into next year.
Initial Public Offerings
2024 began to see a thaw in the initial public offering (IPO) market, and it continued to defrost throughout 2025. Some well-known companies like CoreWeave and Chime Financial conducted IPOs in 2025 with MicroVentures portfolio companies eToro, Circle, Voyager, and Via Transportation making their public debuts. EY found that the totals for both IPO volume and proceeds in Q3 2025 reached the highest levels in the U.S. since Q4 2021. There are still many companies poised and waiting for the right time to conduct a public offering which could potentially come in 2026, including Kraken, Motive, Xanadu, and even OpenAI.
AI Consolidation
Another trend that was seen in 2025 that could continue into 2026 is AI consolidation. AI acquihires were a key theme in 2025 as major players in the AI race turned to M&A as a shortcut to recruit top tier talent. Acquisitions also played a large part over the year as AI companies fought to release the fastest, most advanced, and most innovative large language models and high capability chatbots. There are no signs of the great AI race slowing down at this point, and AI consolidation may continue into 2026.
2026 Industries to Watch
Artificial Intelligence
AI has become a household topic over the past few years, and is expected to keep its momentum in 2026. Whether people use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Copilot, Perplexity, or DeepSeek, AI is prevalent in school, work, household management, and more. Major software players like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft continued to challenge each other for titles including one of the “biggest”, “fastest”, and “most-advanced” while hardware players like NVIDIA, AMD, Cerebras, and SambaNova continued to manufacture chips to help power these efforts.
As we move into 2026, it is possible that AI could start to take a new shape, becoming more embedded into existing tools like search engines, websites, and other tools. Chatbots themselves may become more obsolete, as tools comingle and become more easily accessible. Compute and power needs may also continue to grow, making data centers more important in 2026.Defense Tech
Defense tech is another area to keep an eye on moving into 2026. In 2025, venture funding to defense tech startups reached $7.7 billion across ~100 deals, as of December 2025. This represents over double 2024’s total of $3.16 billion in addition to marking an all-time high for the industry. The Department of Defense also requested a budget of $1.01 trillion for fiscal year 2026, an increase of 13% over the enacted levels for fiscal year 2025. As government defense spending continues to grow, investors may want to keep an eye on the defense tech industry moving into next year.
Renewable Energy
Despite wind and solar investments in the first half of 2025 decreasing 18%, according to Deloitte, investors may want to keep an eye on the industry as we move into 2026. Policy shifts and storage integration are anticipated to impact the industry moving into 2026, as U.S. power use and power demands are anticipated to reach record highs in 2025 and 2026. As demands increase and policy changes challenge startups in the space, it could create opportunities for innovator players disrupting the current space.
Final Thoughts
There could potentially be opportunities in 2026 in some trending industries. Artificial intelligence, defense tech, and renewable energy experienced advancements in 2025. Investors may want to consider keeping an eye on these industries and staying up-to-date on the latest developments.
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Want to learn more about industries investors should keep on an eye on? Check out the following MicroVentures blogs to learn more:
- Going Digital: The Rise of HealthTech
- Investing in the Future: The Rise of GreenTech
- Beyond Sci-Fi: The Rise of Deep Tech
- From Cash to Cloud: The Future of Fintech
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The information presented here is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be, nor should it be construed or used as, comprehensive offering documentation for any security, investment, tax or legal advice, a recommendation, or an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, an interest, directly or indirectly, in any company. Investing in both early-stage and later-stage companies carries a high degree of risk. A loss of an investor’s entire investment is possible, and no profit may be realized. Investors should be aware that these types of investments are illiquid and should anticipate holding until an exit occurs.
