AI leads unicorn creation in 2026; 54 startups cross $1 billion valuation: BestBrokers report

Artificial intelligence has emerged as the biggest driver of new unicorn creation in 2026, with 54 AI startups crossing the $1 billion valuation threshold so far this year, according to a report by BestBrokers on Friday.

The AI companies account for 25.5% of the 212 startups that attained unicorn status globally since January 1, the report said. Together, the newly minted AI unicorns are estimated to be worth about $164 billion.

Robotics ranked as the second-largest sector for new unicorn creation, with 29 startups reaching valuations of at least $1 billion, followed by fintech with 19 companies.

China's DeepSeek emerged as the most valuable company to attain unicorn status in 2026, with an estimated valuation of more than $50 billion. The company has rapidly climbed the global rankings to become the fourth most valuable AI startup, behind Anthropic, OpenAI and Databricks, according to the report.

The report estimates Anthropic's valuation at $965 billion, followed by OpenAI at $852 billion and Databricks at $190 billion. Other highly valued AI startups include China's Moonshot AI at $35 billion and US-based Safe Superintelligence at $32 billion.

US leads new AI unicorn creation

The United States accounted for the largest share of AI startups that became unicorns this year, producing 35 of the 54 new AI unicorns, or nearly 65% of the total.

Hark, an AI-powered personal assistant company, was the most valuable among the newly minted US AI unicorns, with a valuation of $6 billion. River AI and Recursive were also among prominent American companies crossing the $1 billion threshold during the year.

China dominated new AI unicorn creation in Asia, accounting for 10 of the region's 12 newly valued AI startups. These Chinese companies have a combined valuation of around $67 billion.

India’s Sarvam AI valued at $1.5 billion

India also featured in the list through Sarvam AI, which was valued at $1.5 billion. Singapore-based AI video-generation platform PixVerse was the other Asian company to achieve unicorn status.

Europe produced six new AI unicorns, collectively valued at $17.1 billion, with the UK accounting for four. They include Ineffable Intelligence, CuspAI, PhysicsX and Granola.

“By allowing a small team to handle an entire department’s workload, AI is effectively changing the economics of building a startup. This gives founders the ability to go further with less capital, and it plays a big part in the reason why AI companies are hitting billion dollar valuations so fast,” Alan Goldberg of BestBrokers said.

“As a result, investors are placing increasingly larger bets on the startups that seem more likely to deliver, often without an actual product to show for it. The next few years will show whether AI has genuinely created a new breed of highly productive startups, or simply made it much cheaper to create a lot more companies competing for the same customers,” Goldberg added.

The report analysed data from Crunchbase, PitchBook and other sources covering private-company funding rounds and valuations through September 2026.