AI M&A gains momentum as billion-dollar valuations reshape venture underwriting

AI M&A is described as being in full effect, with cited valuations of $60 billion for Cursor, $8 billion for OpenRouter, $13 billion for Hugging Face and $6–7 billion for Descartes. SpaceX, Anduril, Anthropic, Ramp, OpenAI and Databricks are also cited as companies on the IPO path.

The next few years could bring historically high liquidity through AI M&A and IPOs, although many transactions may be paid in stock and therefore provide limited short-term cash liquidity. Strong acquisition appetite for unicorns and decacorns is described as likely to prolong current market froth and significantly change venture-capital underwriting.