The yearbook documents a US venture market that deployed $320 billion across 15,352 deals in 2025, the second-highest total on record, while fundraising fell to $67 billion (the lowest since 2007 for first-time funds) and exits reached $217.1 billion, still just 27 percent of 2021's peak. AI captured 65.4 percent of deal value, an unprecedented single-sector concentration, partly driven by a "circular economy" in which hyperscalers invest in model labs that then spend the capital back on cloud compute. Strip out AI mega-deals and the remaining market of roughly $105 billion looks comparable to 2018 or 2019. The report also details a fundraising bifurcation (the top ten funds raised 32.9 percent of all capital), an 859-unicorn exit backlog worth $4.34 trillion, and the rise of secondary markets ($106.3 billion in volume) as a third liquidity channel alongside IPOs and M&A.

This is the industry's benchmark annual dataset for US venture capital, combining PitchBook's proprietary deal data with NVCA's policy and market commentary. Investors and LPs can use it to separate headline figures from underlying market health, particularly the distinction between AI mega-round activity and the broader venture market. GPs raising funds can benchmark against fundraising bifurcation trends and the emerging manager crisis, while founders can use median valuation, deal size, and time-to-exit tables by funding stage to calibrate expectations for their own rounds.