While private equity firms navigate a highly bifurcated market with an estimated nine-year backlog of exit candidates, strategic trades in the US have dialed back from a banner post-inflation year.

Private equity assets based in the US sold to strategic buyers 154 times for total recorded volume of USD 112bn in 1H26. While the dollar amount increased from USD 92bn in 2H25, it remains far lower than the year-over-year period’s USD 192bn. The number of these deals is also the lowest since 2H24.

“Sponsors are not exiting everything to strategics, but where the asset is mission-critical, AI-adjacent, infrastructure-linked, or strategically scarce, corporates have a real advantage,” said Ken Bisconti, general manager of SS&C Intralinks. “They can underwrite synergies, use balance-sheet capacity, and act without the same fund-cycle constraints sponsors face. That is why the exit window is reopening first for the highest-quality assets, not for the entire sponsor universe.”

The largest US exit to a strategic last half was Leonard Green & Partners’ pending sale of Jetro Restaurant Depot to Sysco for USD 29bn.

Other notable exits of privately traded assets in the US include Quantum Energy Partners’ pending USD 4.7bn sale of Cogentrix Energy to Vistra and Fin’s USD 3.6bn sale to Salesforce from a group of private equity and venture investors.

Despite a year-over-year decline in the first six months of the year, the back half of 2026 has already seen steady volume. The US has notched 60 deals with a recorded volume of USD 79bn through 31 August.

Bisconti indicated that some of the shift in the buyer universe is likely temporary, with sponsors versus strategic buyers invariably shifting back-and-forth.

“It’s going to build up pressure that will release at some point,” he said. “Whether the cost of capital gets relieved or [sponsors] figure out ways to get additional investment or people come to terms with new valuations – something will happen that will increase the amount of activity done by sponsors versus corporates.”

The verticals with the strongest logic for private equity-to-strategic exits include technology and AI infrastructure, fintech and payments, energy and power, media and telecom, healthcare, and selected industrial or aerospace assets tied to supply chain resilience, Bisconti said.

Globally, private equity sales to strategics in 1H26 recorded 533 deals across USD 253bn, a 7% increase in deal count compared to 1H25. The US, the UK, and Japan were the most targeted nations in 1H26 with 154, 51, and 36 deals, respectively.