In the first six months of 2025, the Vertical Applications subsector remained the largest by volume in terms of M&A activity, the same as last year, with 104 deals representing 13% of total transactions. It was followed by CRM, which climbed up from fourth to second place in the second quarter with 12% of transaction volumes, followed by Information Management and IT Services at 10% each. Other AI subsectors in high demand included ERP, Security, Business Intelligence and Application Development & Deployment.

AI companies in the Security sector achieved the highest disclosed median multiple at a striking 12 times revenue followed by Industry-specific Applications at 5.4 times revenue, Internet Content & Commerce at 4.5 times revenue and IT Services at 3.8 times revenue. The largest disclosed deal value in the AI sector was $8.1 billion in the first half of the year with a median disclosed M&A deal size of $34 million.