LSEG: In January-July, the global M&A market revealed that the transaction volume reached US$3.19 trillion, up 36% year over year

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Lucille Jones, senior manager of LSEG Deals Intelligence, said that in the first 7 months of 2026, the global M&A market continued its strong upward trend. The disclosed transaction volume reached US$3.19 trillion, an increase of 36% over the previous year, and is only one step away from the historical peak of January to July 2021. Market activity declined somewhat in July following a rise in the volume of transactions in May-June, but the overall trend did not change: board confidence returned, and strategic mergers and acquisitions once again became an important corporate agenda.

However, according to the “Status of Global Mergers and Acquisitions in the First Half of 2026” report recently released by LSEG, this round of recovery is not as general as shown by surface data. The concentration of mergers and acquisitions activities continues to increase in transaction scale, industry sector, and geographical level, and market growth is driven by a relatively limited number of transactions and participants.

Lucille Jones said, “The surface data shows an overall improvement in the M&A market, but the underlying characteristic is an increase in market concentration. Capital is flowing back into mergers and acquisitions, but it is increasingly concentrated in a small number of companies, industries and regions, which will lead the next stage of global corporate strategy development.”

The market size is increasing, but the number of transactions is shrinking

One of the core features of the M&A market in 2026 is that the gap between total transaction amount and number of transactions continues to widen.

More than 28,000 mergers and acquisitions were disclosed globally in January-July, down 10% from the same period last year, but the total scale of transactions soared to US$3.19 trillion, fully demonstrating that large-scale transactions have become the core driving force behind the market.

This confirms the core conclusion of LSEG's report for the first half of the year: almost all of the new capital inflows into the M&A market is concentrated in a few transactions. In the first seven months of this year, the world revealed a total of 48 mega-transactions exceeding 10 billion US dollars, with a total transaction amount of 1.29 trillion US dollars, accounting for about 40% of the total mergers and acquisitions volume. The number of mega-transactions has surpassed the same period in 2025, reaching a record high in January-July.

This trend shows that market voice is gradually being skewed towards companies that have volume advantages, stable balance sheets, and firm strategic demands, and can implement transformative acquisitions; while the broader M&A market for medium-sized enterprises is relatively sluggish. As described in the first half of the report, the M&A market is increasingly showing the characteristics of a “power law market”: a few transactions account for the vast majority of the overall market size.

Geographic differentiation is still an important characteristic of the market

The characteristics of market concentration are also very prominent at the regional level.

America continues to lead the global M&A market. As of July, it has been disclosed that the transaction volume reached a record 1.84 trillion US dollars, an increase of 51% over the previous year. The scale of mergers and acquisitions in the US alone reached 1.69 trillion US dollars, the highest level in the history of the first seven months where US companies were the targets of acquisitions.

Europe also performed brilliantly. The scale of disclosed mergers and acquisitions targeting European companies reached US$773 billion, a sharp increase of 78% over the previous year, and the highest value in the past 20 years from January to July. The UK contributed significantly, accounting for 35% of Europe's overall mergers and acquisitions.

In contrast, the overall performance of the Asia-Pacific market was relatively sluggish. Despite an increase in the number of transactions, the overall scale of regional mergers and acquisitions fell 8% year over year. The amount of transactions disclosed in Japan fell by 43%. The above data confirms the conclusion of the report for the first half of the year: this round of recovery is highly concentrated in the world's major developed economies, and the vast majority of global market growth comes from the US and Europe.

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions further reflect this pattern. The scale of cross-border mergers and acquisitions reached US$1.05 trillion in the first seven months of 2026, the highest level since January to July 2007. However, most of the growth was concentrated in developed Western markets, where the US and the UK together accounted for nearly half of the total number of cross-border transactions.

AI continues to reshape the strategic focus of enterprises

The technology industry remains the world's largest M&A sector, accounting for 23% of all disclosed transactions in 2026. The industrial, energy and power sectors followed closely. This also confirms one of the core judgments made in the report for the first half of the year: the impact of artificial intelligence is no longer limited to the technology industry.

AI is continuously reshaping capital allocation decisions in various industries, promoting acquisitions in the fields of infrastructure, energy production, industrial production capacity, and digital connectivity. The competition to build and improve the AI ecosystem is no longer an exclusive racetrack for technology companies.

This generalized investment logic also explains why sectors such as energy, electricity, and industry continue to receive a lot of attention from strategic mergers and acquisitions. When conducting acquisition assessments, corporate management increasingly considers long-term infrastructure needs, capacity building, and their competitive position from the perspective of an AI-driven economy.

Market outlook for the second half of 2026

The overall outlook for the M&A market is positive. The financing environment continues to improve, corporate confidence is picking up, and it is compounded by clear strategic capital investment requirements to provide support for trading activities. However, judging from the market performance so far this year, the most important implication is that market recovery does not mean that market participation is moving towards inclusiveness at the same time.

According to the LSEG “Current Status of Global Mergers and Acquisitions in the First Half of 2026” report, concentration has become an iconic characteristic of the current M&A market, reflected in various levels such as transaction scale, industry, region, and even consultancy business entrustment.

The latest data for July shows that this trend has not changed.

Global mergers and acquisitions are in one of the best years in history, but the capital that drives market growth is becoming increasingly selective. For trading practitioners, investors, and corporate management, clarifying capital flows is probably more critical than simply focusing on surface aggregate data.