June 25th marked a big day in Guangzhou when NUPIAO unveiled its 2026 Global Unicorn List.
Here’s the kicker: the top three spots are all heavily invested in large-scale AI models. Anthropic, the brain behind Claude, has skyrocketed to become the world’s most valuable unicorn, now worth a staggering 6.6 trillion RMB. That’s a massive jump of 6.1 trillion in just one year—a new record for the list! OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, secured second place with a valuation of 5.8 trillion RMB. Rounding out the top three is ByteDance (the parent company of Doubao), valued at 3.3 trillion RMB.
The excitement didn’t stop there. DeepSeek took the lead among the 308 brand-new unicorns on the global stage. In just three years, this Hangzhou-based startup—known for delaying commercial monetization early on—has exploded in value to 340 billion RMB, cracking into the global top 15. It was a tight race for the runner-up spot: Jeff Bezos’ physical AI venture, Project Prometheus, came in second (258 billion RMB), while US-based prediction market firm Kalshi held third place (150 billion RMB).
Speaking on the findings, Richard Liu, Chairman and Chief Research Officer at NUPIAO, noted:
“Looking at the heavy hitters on this list, the next wave of the industrial revolution is unmistakably here. Last year’s leader, SpaceX, successfully ‘graduated’ via IPO. This year, the top three are all betting big on AI—Anthropic and OpenAI are both on track to break the $1 trillion mark. Once they go public, they’ll graduate from the unicorn list too. And let’s not forget DeepSeek, our number one new entry this year. From a startup focused on research to a 340-billion-RMB giant in just three years, it’s a story that proves the power of patience in the AI space.”
The numbers tell an incredible story: the total count of global unicorns hit an all-time high of 1,603 companies, up 5.3% from last year with 80 new additions. Software and services remain the core business for 74% of these firms, with fintech, AI, and SaaS leading the charge. The remaining 26% focus on physical products, particularly in life sciences, new energy, and semiconductors. These innovators are scattered across 52 countries and 299 cities worldwide.
Geographically, the United States continues to dominate with 806 unicorns, adding 48 new ones to bring its share to 50.3% of the global total. China holds strong in second place with 381 unicorns, an increase of 38 from last year. Notably, China added 80 new unicorns this year—that’s one every five days, a pace far exceeding last year’s rate of one every ten days. The UK jumped ahead of India to take third place with 70 unicorns compared to India’s 61.
Richard Liu shared more insights:
“This year, the US led the way in IPOs with 34 companies graduating from the unicorn list. SpaceX remains the biggest star with a valuation of 16 trillion RMB. Following close behind are cloud computing giant CoreWeave (over 400 billion RMB) and smart chip pioneer Cerebras Systems (over 300 billion RMB).”
Based on current growth trajectories, NUPIAO projects that China could surpass 500 unicorns within the next five years. Alongside DeepSeek, Shenzhen’s 3D printing company Bambu Lab made a strong debut. The industry focus remains heavily on robotics, AI, and semiconductors, though new energy and aerospace are also gaining traction.
“China saw 26 unicorns graduate this year—up from 19 last year, marking a five-year high,” Liu explained. “This year’s graduates were particularly impressive, including Zhipu AI (950 billion RMB), SJ Semiconductor (380 billion RMB), Moore Threads, and MetaX (both over 300 billion RMB). They’ve joined the ranks of China’s 800+ graduated unicorns, bringing the total number of Chinese unicorn-level enterprises to 1,200.”
Liu also highlighted a unique trend: the prevalence of Tsinghua University alumni in China’s startup scene. He pointed out:
“China’s unicorns have a distinct ‘Tsinghua connection.’ Moonshot AI founder Yang Zhilin is a Tsinghua PhD; LandSpace CEO Wang Jianmeng studied in Tsinghua’s Aerospace Department; Galaxy Robotics’ Wang He and Syntiant’s Zhao Lidong are Tsinghua alumni; and Baichuan Intelligence’s Wang Xiaochuan earned his master’s degree there.”
In terms of sheer valuation, only five unicorns globally exceeded $100 billion, an increase of one from last year. These include payment processor Stripe and data/AI firm Databricks, both of which doubled their valuations to reach 1.1 trillion RMB and 910 billion RMB, respectively.
“The total value of global unicorns has surged to 54 trillion RMB, driven almost entirely by the AI boom. Just the top 10 companies account for 20.1 trillion RMB—nearly 40% of the entire list,” Liu observed. “This extreme concentration of value at the top is unprecedented, reflecting investor confidence that a few AI giants will define the future.”
When looking at city distributions, San Francisco retains its title as the “Global Unicorn Capital” with 222 companies, up 23 from last year. New York follows with 141. In China, Beijing leads with 86 unicorns, followed by Shanghai (74), Shenzhen (44), Hangzhou (25), and Guangzhou (24).
For context, this list features non-public companies founded after 2000 with valuations exceeding $1 billion. All valuations are calculated as of January 1, 2026, incorporating significant updates made prior to publication. NUPIAO has been tracking these global unicorns since 2017, making this the eighth annual release of the report.
