Public data report · weekly

The world’s unicorns

Name: The world's unicorns
Creator: Xcout Intel
License: https://intel.xcout.app/license

Edition of 2 November 2026 · frozen edition. Latest edition →

Private companies whose latest funding-round valuation is $1 billion or more. Listed companies, companies that were acquired, funds and investment vehicles are left out. Filter the list by region, country, industry, segment and the stage of the round that set the valuation.

500Unicorns on our records

27New in the last 90 days

64%Valued in the last 24 months

64%In United States

The list

Ranked by latest valuation. Free readers see each valuation as a range and the year it was set, for the top of every list; signed-in readers see the exact figure, its date and source, and the whole list. “Hiring” compares new job postings in the last four complete weeks with the four before.

RegionCountryIndustrySegmentLast roundValuation

500 unicorns · 135 in the free view (the top 100 worldwide and this week’s movers); sign in for all 500, with exact valuations

#	Company	Segment	Last round	Valuation	Valued	Hiring
1	AnthropicUnited States	Foundation Models & LLM Providers	Series E+	$10B+	2026	·
2	OpenAIUnited States	Conversational AI & Chatbots	Not stated	$10B+	2026	·
3	DatabricksUnited States	—	Growth	$10B+	2026	▼
4	AndurilUnited States	Defense autonomy & AI	Not stated	$10B+	2026	·
5	RampUnited States	Accounting & Finance Ops	Not stated	$10B+	2026	▼
6	DeepSeekChina	Foundation Models & LLM Providers	Series B	$10B+	2026	·
7	CognitionUnited States	AI Agents & Automation	Series E+	$10B+	2026	▼
8	Project PrometheusUnited States	Private Market & Startup Data	Series B	$10B+	2026	▬
9	RippleUnited States	Cross-border & FX	Strategic	$10B+	2025	▼
10	Moonshot AIChina	Conversational AI & Chatbots	Series E+	$10B+	2026	▲
11	Safe SuperintelligenceUnited States	AI Research Labs	Not stated	$10B+	2025	·
12	FanaticsUnited StatesValuation from 2022	Apparel & Footwear	Not stated	$10B+	2022	▬
13	CrusoeUnited States	Public Cloud	Series E+	$10B+	2026	▼
14	VAST DataUnited States	AI Infrastructure & MLOps	Series E+	$10B+	2026	·
15	BasetenUnited States	AI Infrastructure & MLOps	Not stated	$10B+	2026	▬
16	ScaleUnited States	AI Data & Labeling	Series E+	$10B+	2025	·
17	MistralFrance	AI Agents & Automation	Series D	$10B+	2026	·
18	The Boring CompanyUnited States	—	Not stated	$10B+	2026	·
19	KalshiUnited States	Capital Markets & Trading	Series E+	$10B+	2026	▼
20	EtchedUnited States	AI Hardware & Chips	Series D	$10B+	2026	▲
21	Crypto.comSingapore	Crypto & Digital Assets	Not stated	$10B+	2026	▬
22	Physical IntelligenceUnited StatesNew	Foundation Models & LLM Providers	Not stated	$10B+	2026	▬
23	HelsingGermany	AI Agents & Automation	Series E+	$10B+	2026	▬
24	Kling AIChina	Computer Vision	Not stated	$10B+	2026	·
25	DeelUnited States	Employer of Record & Global Hiring	Series E+	$10B+	2025	·

New unicorns

First valued at $1 billion or more in a round announced in the last 90 days, after smaller rounds we hold for the same company. A company whose earlier valuations never reached our records cannot be told apart from a new one, so it is left out of this list rather than guessed into it.

Lost unicorn status

A company valued at $1 billion or more before whose latest round, announced in the last twelve months, values it below $1 billion: a down round. Companies that were acquired or went public are not here; they are under exits.

No company in our records fell below $1 billion in a round announced in the last twelve months.

Exits in the last 90 days

Unicorns that were acquired or listed on a stock exchange. They leave the list; that is not a loss of status.

Where they are

Unicorns by the region of their headquarters, across the whole list. Click a bar for the companies in it.

What they do

The ten industries with the most unicorns. A company can sit in more than one industry, so the bars add up to more than 500; 135 are not yet classified. Artificial intelligence leads with 116.

The round that set the valuation

The stage of each company’s latest valued round. “Not stated” is a round reported without a series letter, common for very large rounds.

How recent the valuations are

The year of each unicorn’s latest valuation. 181 unicorns (36%) were last valued more than 24 months ago; the list marks them “Valuation from” that year, because a quiet company may no longer be worth what it was.

Who is still hiring

Valuation lists stop at the funding round. We also read each unicorn’s hiring: new postings on its own careers site. We read 185 of the 500 unicorns (30 or more postings in the last 180 days); 97 more post too rarely to judge, and the rest we do not read yet. Momentum compares new postings in the last four complete weeks with the four before.

53Of those, hiring rising

47Hiring steady

56Hiring falling

23Of 47 last valued 2+ years ago, still hiring steadily or more

Valued more than two years ago, and hiring less

17 unicorns whose latest valuation is over 24 months old, whose hiring we read, are posting fewer jobs than a month before. An old valuation is not a lower one, and fewer postings can mean a team that is already full; read together, they are the companies whose next round is worth watching. 7 more went from steady posting to almost none; we count them but do not name them, because that is also what a careers site we stopped reading looks like.

And 14 more outside the free top 100 — sign in to see every name and its posting counts.

Follow every unicorn, not just the top of the list

The full list with exact valuations, their dates and sources
Each company’s valuation history and every round with its investors, on its profile
Alerts on the companies you follow: funding rounds, acquisitions, leadership changes and other events

See plans

Past editions

Every edition is frozen at its own address, so a number you quote never changes under the link.

2 November 2026this edition 26 October 2026 19 October 2026 17 October 2026

How the list is built

What counts as a unicorn

A private company whose latest valuation from a priced funding round is $1 billion or more. Stock-market capitalisations never count.
Left out: listed companies (from their listing date), acquired companies (from the deal), bankrupt or closed companies, funds, investment vehicles and companies owned by a private-equity firm.
A valuation counts only when the round is between 1% and 70% of it, or when a second source within 15% agrees. Valuations from company-profile directories are not used. A figure under half a company’s earlier valuation needs a second source before it replaces it.

Movers

New: first valued at $1B+ in a round of the last 90 days, after smaller rounds we hold.
Lost status: a down round below $1B announced in the last twelve months. Exits are listed apart.
Hiring: new postings, last four complete weeks against the four before; a 20% change of at least five postings is “rising” or “falling”. A posting counts only if we saw it while it was new. A unicorn’s hiring is “read” when we stored 30 or more of its postings in the 180 days before the edition.

Checked by hand

The top of the list and every company the rules left out were read by hand on 17 October 2026. 67 companies were corrected: namesakes carrying another company’s round, duplicates, listed and bankrupt companies the records still called private, and three valuations misread at the source (OpenAI’s round size stored as its valuation; a valuation in yuan stored as dollars). Our records are not complete: a unicorn whose valuation we never stored is not on the list.

Why unicorn counts differ

Published counts in 2026 run from about 1,200 to 1,700: Hurun counts 1,603 (cut-off 1 January 2026) and PitchBook 1,680 (end of the first quarter). CB Insights, Crunchbase and Dealroom each keep their own list with their own rules. The differences come from what each one admits: a valuation from a priced round only or also from reports and estimates; companies owned by private-equity firms or not; when an acquired or listed company leaves; and how a company in several countries is placed.

Ours (500) is smaller on purpose: a company counts only when we hold a dated valuation of $1 billion or more from a priced round that passes the checks above, and only while it is still private and independent. It is also smaller because our records are not complete, most of all for China. What no other list carries is the hiring beside each valuation.

Source

Xcout Intel company and funding records: company announcements, press and news. Edition of 2 November 2026, frozen: these numbers will not change.

Quoting these figures

Free to quote, chart and report on, with attribution: Source: Xcout Intel Unicorns report (intel.xcout.app/insights/unicorns/2026-11-02). Reproducing a chart or table needs a link back to this page. Full terms are on the attribution page; how the data is collected is on the methodology page.

Writing about this? We will confirm a figure before you publish and can send the cut behind any number here, by company, country or sector: hello@intel.xcout.app.