2025 U.S. Private Equity M&A Activity Retrospective & 2026 Market Outlook

Breaking the trend of the last two (2) years, 2025 saw a historic return of sponsor-led deal activity culminating in an aggregate $1.2 trillion worth of transactions — the second-most all time — and an increase of 36.3% year-over-year against 2024. The surge in deal value was propelled by a continued wave of large and mega cap deals, which accounted for approximately $567.8 billion worth of sponsor-led deal activity across 150 transactions in 2025, as sponsors focused on fewer but larger transactions.