Global mergers and acquisitions totaled $993 billion in the third quarter, down 41% from the previous quarter and marking the first time quarterly dealmaking has fallen below $1 trillion since the second quarter of 2025, according to LSEG data.
The quarter saw 10 deals valued at more than $10 billion, the fewest megadeals in any quarter since the fourth quarter of 2024. Among them were Banca Monte dei Paschi's $32 billion bid for Banco BPM and Gold Fields' $25.7 billion bid for Northern Star Resources.
The decline came as surging energy costs fanned inflation and pushed expectations higher for where interest rates will settle, even as the artificial intelligence and data center construction boom lifted the outlook for economic growth.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield hit 5.34% on Thursday, its highest level since 2002, after posting its biggest quarterly rise this century in the three months ending in September.
Despite the quarterly slowdown, worldwide M&A so far this year is up 28% to $3.9 trillion, the highest level for the period since 2001. The number of deals fell 8% to levels not seen since 2020.
Corporations continue to seek scale or access to markets and technologies they are not in. Historic levels of investment in the technology sector have bolstered deals, with strategic stake purchases in those companies accounting for about one quarter of global M&A so far this year. Earlier this year, Claude maker Anthropic and ChatGPT maker OpenAI each raised tens of billions of dollars from investors.
U.S. and European dealmaking fell sharply in the last three months, but Asia Pacific M&A totaled $242 billion, up 8% from the second quarter and up 36% from the same period last year.
This has been the strongest year to date for global private equity-backed dealmaking by value since records began in 1980, though the third quarter also saw a slowdown compared with the same period last year.
Cross-border dealmaking remains a strong theme this year, up 32% compared with the same period last year.
New listings, particularly in the technology sector, have fueled M&A by giving companies new currency to buy up rivals. SpaceX acquired AI coding startup Cursor just days after its blockbuster Nasdaq debut, which saw its valuation surge to more than $2 trillion.
The June IPO of Elon Musk's SpaceX helped drive $215 billion worth of initial public offerings, excluding SPACs, priced globally in the year to date, the highest level since 2021, from a lower number of deals than in the same period last year.
In the last three months, stock sales raised $284 billion, 26% less than the proceeds raised across equity capital markets during the second quarter, though marking a 39% increase from the third quarter of 2025, thanks to offerings from SK Hynix and Intel.
Some bankers sounded a note of caution, saying some investors were taking more of a pause when approaching technology and AI-related deals.
In recent weeks, some IPOs have been delayed as higher interest rates and setbacks in the data center ecosystem threaten to derail a slew of new issues from the sector.
But even with the uncertainty ahead, bankers remain confident.
