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A new comprehensive report by BestBrokers is highlighting the world’s largest private startups in terms of market value. The Report focused on the startups with a valuation of $1 billion or more, known as unicorns. It analyzed them based on estimated value, as well as on place of origin and specific industry.
RELATED: Half of new Unicorn Startups in 2024 are developing AI
To explore the current state of unicorns worldwide, the team at BestBrokers looked into the CB Insights’ unicorn tracker and made a note of all companies on the list as of December, 2024. According to the dataset of 1,259 startups we analyzed, Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX is currently the largest private startup in the world.
Until recently, Chinese tech giant and developer of TikTok, ByteDance, was considered the most valuable startup globally with a valuation of $300 billion. This changed in December when in an insider share sale, SpaceX saw its value rise to $350 billion. This makes the Texas-based spacecraft manufacturer the most successful private startup in history.
Few key takeaways from the report
- As of January 8, 2025, there are 1,259 private startups valued at $1 billion or more around the world. The combined value of these companies exceeds $4.3 trillion and while this is no match to the massive capitalization of the world’s largest corporations, it is an indication of the incredible strength and resilience of the startup sector.
- Valued at $350 billion, rocket maker SpaceX is now the world’s most valuable unicorn startup, followed by TikTok developer ByteDance ($300 billion), and Sam Altman’s startup OpenAI, known for creating ChatGPT. The AI company now ranks 3rd in the world with a value of $157 billion.
- Home to 188 startups valued at $1 billion or more, San Francisco remains the world’s unicorn capital. Among the companies based there are OpenAI ($157 billion), financial services company Stripe ($70 billion), and AI data intelligence company Databricks ($62 billion).
- A total of 79 private startups reached unicorn status in 2024 and 36 of them are in the AI sector.
10 Most Valuable Unicorns in 2024
Below are the 11 most valuable startups that reached unicorn status in 2024
- xAI (United States) – Valuation of $50 billion; Focus: AI
- PerplexityAI (United States) – Valuation of $9 billion; Focus: AI
- SandboxAQ (United States) – Valuation of $5.6 billion; Focus: AI
- Safe Superintelligence (United States) – Valuation of $5 billion; Focus: AI
- Sierra (United States) – Valuation of $4.50 billion; Focus: AI
- Abba Platforms (United States) – Valuation of $3.70 billion; Focus: Fintech
- Vultr – (United States) – Valuation of $3.5 billion; Focus: Cloud Computing
- Moonshot AI (China) – Valuation of $3.30 billion; Focus: AI
- Cyera (United States) – Valuation of $3 billion; Focus: AI
- Poolside (France) – Valuation of $3 billion; Focus: AI
- Monad Labs (United States) – Valuation of $3 billion; Focus: Blockchain
Nearly half of those 79 startups are in the AI sector
More details about the startups that reached unicorn status in 2024 can be found in the full report, which includes the full dataset of 2024’s new additions to the list.
