Kalshi reaches $40bn valuation with $1bn Series G as Utah files felony charges against the platform

Prediction markets company Kalshi has reached the $40bn valuation it had been targeting for much of 2026. The milestone came through a $1bn Series G funding round, co-led by Wellington Management and Sequoia Capital.

A long list of investors also took part, including Baillie Gifford, Stripes, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Layer Global, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Sequoia Global Equities, CapitalG, Hudson River Trading and Balyasny Asset Management. Kalshi said the money will be used for building the next-generation financial exchange. The valuation arrived in the same week the company announced a partnership with S&P Dow Jones. Chief Executive Tarek Mansour has previously indicated that a public listing is unlikely before at least late 2027.

The funding comes amid a fractured regulatory picture. In the US, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under the Trump administration is supportive of prediction markets, a reversal from its more confrontational stance under the Biden administration. Many state gambling regulators and governments, however, regard the products as unregulated gambling. This week Utah filed 13 felony charges against Kalshi, following 20 felony charges filed earlier in the year by Arizona. Utah's action places a long-time Republican stronghold at odds with a federal regulator overseen by a Republican administration.

Internationally the situation is similarly divided. France, the Netherlands, Portugal and the Czech Republic, among others, have firmly rejected prediction markets. The UK appears more receptive, but its Gambling Commission has said platforms would need a gambling licence, something neither Kalshi nor Polymarket is willing to seek because both maintain their products are financial services rather than gambling. Polymarket, which is reportedly eyeing a $22bn valuation, has reportedly held talks with the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority. Gibraltar became the first jurisdiction to create its own prediction market framework and has approved ADI Predictstreet and Wire Markets.

Mansour argued in a post on X, sharing an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, that a bet and a trade can look alike but work differently, since a sportsbook sets the odds and takes the other side of a wager while prediction markets match buyers and sellers. Kalshi said that as of September 2026 around 500 institutional entities were active on its platform, and that entities excluding market makers accounted for about 25% of total exchange trading volume.