Good morning. Everyone in tech is talking about OpenAI’s astonishing $6.6 billion fundraise, which got me wondering: What’s the largest-ever round in tech?
Leave it to the fine folks at PitchBook, who helped us with our inaugural Unicorn List in the go-go days of 2015, to track such things. (Back to 2006, anyway.)
The answer as of last year? Didi Global. The Chinese ride-hailing company raised $5.5 billion in 2017—or $7.1 billion, adjusted for inflation—four years before its IPO.
Things haven’t been so rosy for the company since, but hey, don’t stop believin’, right? —Andrew Nusca
Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Data Sheet? Drop a line here.