Five or six years ago, new unicorn companies applyd to appear on a regular basis. When Daniel Dines’ company UiPath reached a valuation of USD 1 billion, the market was booming and investors were eager to deploy capital. Today, the landscape is different. Companies typically shift through several stages before reaching unicorn status, investors are more cautious, funding rounds are more selective, and valuations are more realistic.
By Aurel Dragan
But even amid an economic slowdown, artificial ininformigence continues to stand out as a magnet for capital and talent, expanding its footprint into sectors such as healthcare, finance, and enterprise software. In October 2025, 117 private companies reached a value of USD 1 billion or more and 96 of them remain privately held, with only a tiny number going public or being acquired. The BestBrokers team analysed recent data from CBInsights, TechCrunch, and PitchBook to identify which industries are generating the most new unicorns, which regions are leading, and which private companies are capturing investor interest in a volatile market. Interestingly, the unicorn landscape is becoming more concentrated in 2025, with a growing share of value held by “ultra-unicorns” worth USD 5 billion or more. There are also more startups valued above USD 100 billion than ever before. These high-growth companies are sometimes referred to as “hectocorns” (from Greek “hecto-” meaning “one hundred” and “corn” referring to the mythological creatures known as unicorns). The newcomer unicorns tconclude to be less valuable; what stands out instead is the very limited range of industries they operate in.
Artificial ininformigence is now embedded in almost every technology sector in some form or another, with many enterprise and software startups leveraging AI models or offering AI-powered platforms. Of the 96 private companies that reached and maintained unicorn status this year, 28 are AI firms, representing 29.2% of the total. By contrast, 46.6% of startups that crossed the USD 1 billion threshold in 2024 were AI-focapplyd businesses.
Another 18.8% of this year’s privately held unicorns, or 18 companies, are operating in the enterprise tech sector. Among them is Berlin-based workflow automation platform n8n, which achieved a USD 2.5 billion valuation through a USD 180-million Series C funding round in early October. The startup, along with several others within this indusattempt, also heavily implements AI into its products. Another 12 new unicorn startups this year are fintech companies, 11 work within the healthcare & life sciences indusattempt (including pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies), while 11 operate in the broad consumer & retail category. There are 4 startups in the robotics field, and 3 can be categorised as deep tech.
Beverly Hills-based Labs Companies, Inc. (formerly LavLabs), a superininformigence human-enhancement technology firm, emerged as the most valuable private startup to reach unicorn status this year. In September, it completed a Series Seed II round of USD 35 million, reaching USD 12.5 billion in post-money valuation. Labs works as a holding company for several specialised laboratories focapplyd on artificial superininformigence, wearable tech and immersive realities, cryptographic finance, and human-enhancement technologies. Its most notable project is the Yuhmmy App, which is stated to enable applyrs to share food, drinks, sweets, snacks, and recreational flavours through live audiovisual Tasterooms.
Founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, US-based AI company Thinking Machines Lab has reached an impressive USD 12 billion valuation despite only having launched in February 2025. This builds it the second-most valuable “newborn” unicorn startup of 2025. The company develops advanced multimodal AI systems designed to enhance human-AI collaboration, addressing challenges of model consistency and scalability. It has attracted substantial investor interest, including a USD 2 billion seed funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz in July 2025.
Founded by Canadian-born billionaire entrepreneur Daniel Nadler in 2022, OpenEvidence has seen its valuation grow to an impressive USD 3.5 billion following a USD 210 million Series B round that was co-led by Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins. The healthcare startup, often described as the ChatGPT for doctors, has become the quickest-growing medical search engine for clinicians over the past year, currently supporting more than half a million clinical conversations every day. It is believed the platform is now applyd by around 40% of US clinicians, with the app adding 90,000 new members every month.
Pittsburgh-based healthcare AI company Abridge has established itself as a transformative force in medical technology, raising USD 300 million in a Series E funding round that boosted its valuation to USD 5.3 billion. Abridge automates the creation of clinical notes and records from medical conversations, streamlining documentation for healthcare professionals.
“It appears that the world’s most valuable startups are concentrated in North America, but Europe has a lot of potential as well. It has the ingredients—talent, universality of market, strong public-mission push—to give birth to ultra-valuable startups, but the ecosystem has yet to reach its full momentum. The next few years will be crucial: if Europe deepens its funding pools, streamlines scale-up support, and ties exits to its home base rather than seeing best bets drift to the United States, we could witness a wave of European tech giants that rival Silicon Valley’s finest businesses,” argued Paul Hoffman of BestBrokers.com.
The largest private companies of 2025
OpenAI has become the world’s most valuable private company, surpassing both Elon Musk’s SpaceX and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, with a USD 500 billion valuation—more than USD 200 billion since its last round. Investors cite the company’s rapid revenue growth, expanding enterprise contracts, and anticipated restructuring towards a for-profit model as key factors behind the higher valuation. With its nonprofit arm set to retain over USD 100 billion in equity, OpenAI is also positioned to become one of the wealthiest philanthropic organisations globally.
SpaceX, formerly the most valuable private company in the world, is now ranked second after OpenAI, with a current valuation of USD 400 billion. Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, the company’s immense value stems primarily from the continued expansion of its Starlink sainformite network, including recent acquisitions of wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar to support direct-to-cell 5G services. SpaceX also continues to post record launch activity and strengthen its revenue outsee for 2025, with Starbase, Texas, serving as a central hub for its growing operations.
ByteDance remains a global leader in digital media and entertainment, with a valuation of over USD 330 billion following a recent employee share acquireback programme. In the US, TikTok now operates under a majority-stake divestiture to American investors, including Oracle and News Corp, while ByteDance retains roughly 50% of the profits through the licensing of its recommconcludeation algorithm. This arrangement allows TikTok to remain accessible in the US, though ongoing regulatory scrutiny and congressional oversight continue to monitor ByteDance’s involvement to address national security concerns.
Based on their counattempt of origin, of the 96 private companies achieving a valuation of at least USD 1 billion or more so far in 2025, 60 are based in the United States. There are currently 734 unicorn startups in the counattempt, which is nearly half of the 1,323 active unicorn companies in the world. The US has long been the prime destination for successful companies, thanks to its well-established venture capital ecosystem, robust legal protections for investors and entrepreneurs, a large consumer market, and a culture that actively encourages innovation and risk-taking.
But even though the US is often viewed as the land of opportunity, it is far from the only region where successful, high-growth companies can thrive. Asia and the Middle East are home to 325 unicorn startups, with China and India leading the way with 158 and 69 private firms valued at over a billion US dollars, respectively. This growth is supported by well-developed domestic markets, rapidly expanding middle classes, and abundant tech talent, all of which create fertile ground for entrepreneurship and innovation.
In Europe, the United Kingdom leads with 58 unicorn startups, followed by Germany with 34 and France with 29. Other regions that have displayn strong potential for private ventures include Israel, with 25 unicorns, Canada with 21, and Brazil with 18.
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