After several years of false starts, corporate dealmaking is finally stirring back to life. The signs are everywhere: CEOs edging back into strategic purchase mode, their confidence buoyed by healthier balance sheets and a more stable, if less than ideal, interest rate environment. Private equity firms loosening the purse strings on an estimated $2 trillion in dry power and, simultaneously, putting a backlog of portfolio holdings in play. Founders who hit pause on exit plans starting to reengage. AI both fueling deals and being leveraged to evaluate them.
Buy and sell opportunities abound-but so do hurdles. Cost of capital remains high. A steady stream of exterior threats, from geopolitical crises to regulatory action, continues to ignite risk and fuel uncertainty. Across industries, pockets of inactivity linger, particularly in software, where the “SaaSpocalypse” induced by the rise of AI agents prompted valuations to plummet, miring the entire sector in a fire sale environment. In short, the current deal-making environment differs vastly from that of the 2021 boom that saw 62,000 deals, many at sky-high valuations, inked.
Still, 7,924 transactions representing $861 billion in value were announced in Q1 of 2026, marking the strongest start since 2021, according to S&P Global. M&A veterans we spoke with characterize the remainder of 2026 as promising for deals, even as they note that the playbook for pursuing them has changed. They’re sourcing strategically, stress-testing harder and longer, scrutinizing cultural and operational fit earlier and leaning into AI, not only as a reason to buy but also as a powerful tool to evaluate targets faster and more intelligently.
