me and k00b were talking about recruiting ai devs a couple weeks ago in sa on snl, thought it was an interesting post that came across the desk this evening
By the numbers
In the first half of 2025, there were 427 reported M&A deals globally, according to Crunchbase data. That compares to 362 in the same period last year, representing an 18% increase. For comparison’s sake, in the full years 2021 and 2022, there were more than 1,000 deals in which startups bought other startups, per Crunchbase data.
It’s typically cheaper to buy the technology than build it, and cheaper “to buy the team with a six-month golden handcuff earnout than recruiting.” But it’s also based on a rush to market, most particularly in the extremely competitive AI field. “For AI companies, the buyer has immediate access to proprietary model architectures, inference platforms or edge-device integrations without the spend associated with AI training,” she said. “The buyer gets to immediately procure specialized datasets or fine-tuned models from a seller that effectively block out the competition in verticals with especially clunky sales cycles such as law, government or hospitals.” In general, Mignano believes that “buyers are in a really good place right now.”