Data reveals top AI startups are now frequent acquirers

A review of Crunchbase data reveals that several of the fastest-growing companies in the artificial intelligence sector are transforming into serial acquirers, purchasing smaller enterprises to bridge product gaps, penetrate new markets, and secure specialized in-house talent. While OpenAI stands out as the most prominent buyer by a wide margin, well-funded startups specializing in customer service, legal tech, and software development have also executed multiple acquisitions throughout the year.

According to Crunchbase figures, this buying wave brought acquisitions of AI startups by other venture-backed AI firms to 195 by September 29, marking a 14% increase compared to the entirety of 2025. Meanwhile, the total count of buyers grew by only 2%, demonstrating that a handful of increasingly active acquirers are responsible for the vast majority of this upward trend.

These transactions highlight a shifting competitive landscape within the AI industry, where heavily financed startups leverage mergers and acquisitions to expand their product offerings and reach clients more rapidly than organic development would allow. In the legal technology sector, for instance, acquisitions are integrating research, litigation tools, and regulatory monitoring capabilities into comprehensive platforms.

Legora CFO David Eckstein outlined this strategic rationale in a LinkedIn post earlier in the year regarding his firm’s consecutive purchases of various startups: “M&A is explicitly part of how we accelerate what we’re building. The question we always ask is: does this deal get us somewhere faster than we’d get there ourselves?”

Repeat buyers step up dealmaking

Crunchbase data indicates that several AI buyers have engaged in dealmaking multiple times over recent years. Across a three-year timeframe, 67 repeat buyers were responsible for roughly 42% of all recorded transactions. OpenAI led all participants by a significant margin with 20 AI-related acquisitions, which includes 10 completed this year.

Additional repeat buyers for this year feature Anthropic alongside legal AI startup Legora, each reporting five acquisitions, closely followed by legal AI firm Harvey with four. Coding enterprise Cursor and customer-service AI provider Sierra each completed three acquisitions this year, while Cohere reported two. A large portion of these purchasers consist of vertical AI startups acquiring companies operating within their respective domains.

Several transactions completed this year feature substantial price tags. Nscale’s reported $1.65 billion purchase of Anyscale stands as the largest deal with a public valuation, followed by Cyera’s $1 billion acquisition of identity security startup Oasis Security.

Anthropic’s acquisition of pharmaceutical research AI developer Coefficient Bio was valued at $400 million. OpenAI’s $300 million purchase of Los Altos, California-based Glass Imaging—a company specializing in custom AI for computational photography camera hardware—alongside Sword Health’s acquisition of Kaia Health for up to $285 million, complete the top five largest transactions tracked in the dataset through September 29.

Overall, financial terms were publicly disclosed for just 12 out of the 195 total deals, creating challenges in determining total capital spent by AI startups on these acquisitions.

Dealmaking momentum has clearly accelerated as a growing number of AI firms embrace acquisitions and occasionally establish them as a core component of their expansion strategies. 1

“It’s all about speed in the AI world,” notes Rama Sekhar, partner at Menlo Ventures, a firm that has invested in multiple AI startups such as Legora and Anthropic. “It’s faster to acquire a team or product than build it yourself. If you’re not growing 10x, you’re not interesting to growth investors, which leaves a gap in the funding market for AI startups that need a home. High valuations have also given AI startups cheap currency to use their stock to get these deals done with minimal dilution.”

What AI startups are buying — and why

The identities of the acquired businesses provide valuable context regarding the motivations behind the intensified M&A activity among AI startups.

OpenAI’s purchases span a diverse range, encompassing scientific-writing software, healthcare data, developer infrastructure, specialized talent, and security tools. The San Francisco enterprise announced three separate acquisitions during January alone, establishing an active pace for the entire year.

The January acquisitions included:

• Convogo, creator of AI software designed to assist executive coaches in automating leadership assessment documentation.
• Torch Health, an AI-driven health application intended to consolidate fragmented medical records sourced from labs, hospitals, wearables, and consumers.
• Crixet, a platform offering LaTeX editing, team collaboration, and error detection capabilities.

In February, OpenAI took part in an acqui-hire arrangement centered on open-source AI agent OpenClaw alongside its creator, Peter Steinberger. March brought announcements regarding plans to acquire Astral, a developer of open-source software tools, alongside Promptfoo, an open-source utility utilized for testing AI applications.

During June, OpenAI reached an agreement to buy Ona—previously recognized as Gitpod—which supplies secure cloud environments allowing developers and AI agents to continue tasks after a user closes their laptop. August brought the acquisition of Instant, an AI presentation tool capable of transforming notes, prompts, and files into editable slide decks.

Vertical AI roll-ups

Crunchbase data analysis reveals that well-funded vertical AI startups, particularly within the legal tech sector, have similarly maintained an active schedule acquiring smaller entities throughout the year.

Harvey, based in San Francisco, directed its AI-related purchases toward filling gaps surrounding its core software. Hexus created video, product demo, and guide creation utilities, whereas Lume developed software enabling companies to link customer applications and data directly with AI frameworks.

New York-based Benchmark engineered software assisting asset managers in extracting insights from past investments to inform upcoming transactions. This acquisition broadened Harvey’s footprint within the asset management industry. The company’s fourth recognized acquisition of the year, unveiled on September 9, was Guardrails AI, a developer of open-source tools focused on managing, monitoring, and testing AI agents.

Katie Burke, COO of Harvey, informed Crunchbase News that the firm’s M&A philosophy centers on locating “technical talent with high ownership and deep experience in legal tech or an adjacent space to legal.”

Highlighting Benchmark as a prime example, she noted that the co-founders “know the asset management space cold, and their name was dropped so many times in customer conversations that it was a natural fit for them to join our team.”

Burke characterized the startup’s M&A framework as “selective but aggressive.”

“We hold an incredibly high bar for talent and when we identify an additive company, we move quickly and will continue to do so this year and beyond,” she added.

Legora has undertaken an even broader legal-tech consolidation effort. The five announced acquisitions executed by the Stockholm-headquartered company this year comprise:

• Walter AI, a nine-person Canadian startup whose agents operate directly within Microsoft Outlook and Word;
• Qura, a Stockholm-based firm engineering AI-powered legal research utilities;
• Graceview, an Australian regulatory-intelligence platform tracking legal modifications across more than 100 subject areas;
• Cadastral, a firm whose AI agents analyze commercial real estate data and documents; and
• Wexler AI, located in London, which aids litigation teams in pulling facts from extensive document repositories, identifying discrepancies, and constructing case timelines.

Sierra’s acquisitions demonstrate a drive to scale geographically while reaching beyond traditional customer-service automation. March brought the purchase of Tokyo enterprise AI startup Opera Tech to support expansion within Japan, followed by Paris-based Fragment, a company aiding businesses in automating operational processes via AI. In July, Sierra acquired TakeOff, a startup operating for 14 months that focuses on developing “long-horizon” agents.

For targets of these acquisitions, integrating into a larger platform offers a rapid pathway to scale even when their independent operations experience rapid growth. TakeOff founder Aakash Thumaty detailed in a July blog post that his organization generated a “near 8-figure run rate” supported by a staff of merely three individuals. “The advice for an AI startup growing at our pace is to hire out a sales team, raise again, and keep going,” he stated. “We had capital, customers, and great traction,” though the Sierra acquisition presented a chance to “accelerate our shared vision and simultaneously build it at a grander scale.”

This expansion in M&A activity stems from an enlarged pool of buyers combined with increasingly active serial acquirers. Maintaining this current trajectory suggests further activity will emerge across the upcoming months and years.

Related Crunchbase queries:

• AI Startups Acquiring AI Startups
• Most Acquisitive Startups Between 2021 And 2026

Related reading:

• Data: OpenAI Has Already Done Nearly As Many M&A Deals In 2026 As It Did All of Last Year
• Startups Are Still Acquiring Startups, Led By Ultra-High-Valuation Unicorns
• Your AI Strategy May Be Destroying Your Exit Value

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are AI startups increasingly acquiring other companies?

Well-funded AI startups are turning to M&A to broaden their product offerings, enter new markets, and bring specialized teams in-house much faster than they could by building everything internally.

Who is the most active AI acquirer according to Crunchbase data?

OpenAI is by far the most active buyer, with 20 AI-related acquisitions, including 10 completed this year.

How many AI startup acquisitions have occurred in 2026?

Acquisitions of AI startups by other venture-backed AI companies reached 195 through September 29, which is 14% higher than the total number recorded for all of 2025.

Are the financial details publicly available for all of these acquisitions?

No, financial prices were disclosed for only 12 out of the 195 total deals recorded in the dataset.

What are some notable large-scale AI acquisitions mentioned?

Notable large transactions include Nscale’s $1.65 billion acquisition of Anyscale, Cyera’s $1 billion acquisition of Oasis Security, and Anthropic’s $400 million acquisition of Coefficient Bio.

Illustration: Dom Guzman