The Crunchbase News AI analysis of Q2 activity points to a funding environment where deal volume and capital deployment are increasingly decoupled. While a few top firms write the biggest checks, the sheer number of seed deals indicates a crowded, perhaps frothy, early-stage market. This divergence may signal a coming shakeout, where only startups backed by the deepest pockets can afford the escalating compute and talent costs required to compete. In our view, the real test for this investment surge will be whether the capital produces durable businesses, or merely fuels an expensive race for benchmarks.