Since the launch of OpenAI’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022, 100 startups have reached unicorn status, reflecting the sector’s rapid growth and heightened interest from the technology and investor community.

A new report by business analytics platform CB Insights looks at this landscape, analyzing these 100 billion-dollar companies to understand how the cohort stacks up, top exits, leading investors, and more.

According to the report, large tech firms back a significant share of the AI ecosystem. 36% of these 100 unicorns have received investment from companies such as Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft, with Nvidia leading the group with stakes in 24 of the 100 ventures. This reflects the firm’s strategy of building an AI ecosystem through strategic investments.

Notable Nvidia-backed AI unicorns include Skild AI, which develops a universal AI model for robotics, valued at US$4.5 billion; Imbue, which specializes in AI agents for reasoning and coding; and Ayar Labs, which builds optical I/O solutions to enhance data movement and compute efficiency for AI systems. Google follows Nvidia with investments in 15 AI unicorns, and Microsoft with seven.

Top performing venture capital (VC) firms are also heavily involved, with Lightspeed leading the category with investments in 17 AI unicorns, followed by Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia.

AI exits

So far, this landscape has witnessed three exits. These transactions all occurred over the past year or so:

• BioCatch, a digital fraud detection and financial crime prevention startup, was acquired in September 2024 by Permira, a global private equity firm;
• CoreWeave, an AI infrastructure company, went public on Nasdaq in March 2025, raising US$1.5 billion in the largest US tech initial public offering (IPO) since UiPath’s debut in 2021; and
• Windsurf, an AI coding company, was acquired by Cognition in July 2025. Cognition is best known for its AI coding agent named Devin, which is designed to help engineers build software faster.

According to CB Insights, Beamery and Huma are next in line to exit and are the two AI unicorns most likely to be acquired in the near future.

Beamery is a UK-based human resource management software company, which integrates skills and task intelligence to real-time workforce data. Its agentic talent advisor enables businesses to hire, redeploy, and reskill talent.

Beamery reached unicorn status in December 2022 following a US$50 million Series D. It recently launched its Workforce Intelligence Suite, featuring Task Intelligence to break roles into tasks for AI automation, and introduced Ray, an embedded AI consultant helping enterprise leaders make talent decisions across the platform.

Beamery has secured partnerships with prominent names like LinkedIn Recruiter and Workday Skills. The startup has also seen its revenue surge from US$4.6 million in fiscal 2020 to US$112.8 million in fiscal 2024, marking a 2,352% increase.

Huma, based in London as well, develops AI-powered digital health platforms for remote patient monitoring and decentralized clinical trials. These platforms are currently used by more than 3,000 hospitals and clinics, with over 35 million screened users and 4 million registered users in healthcare.

Huma, which reached unicorn status in July 2024 following a US$80 million Series D, has inked partnerships with the likes of AstraZeneca, Google Cloud, and Bayer, reflecting industry traction.

Robotics gains momentum

One trend highlighted in the report is the rise of physical AI. This category currently includes three unicorns, namely Skild AI, Physical Intelligence, and World Labs, and 3 humanoid robot developers, which are Figure, Unitree Robotics, and Zhiyuan Robot. This signals strong investor confidence in AI’s transition from digital to physical applications.

Morgan Stanley expects the humanoid robot market to exceed US$5 trillion by 2050, including sales from supply chains and networks for repair, maintenance and support. By then, the number of robots that resemble and act like humans is projected to reach nearly 1 billion, with 90% used for industrial and commercial purposes. China is likely to have the highest number of humanoid robots in use by 2050, at 302.3 million, trailed by the US at 77.7 million.

This surge will be in part driven by increased accessibility of humanoids. Prices are expected to fall to about US$150,000 by 2028 and US$50,000 by 2050, down from US$200,000 in 2024 in high-income countries. In lower-income countries, which may take more advantage of the cheaper Chinese supply chain, prices could fall to as low as US$15,000 by 2050, the firm says.

Foundational infrastructure leads AI unicorns

Large language model (LLM) developers currently dominate AI unicorns, with 12 ventures. Prominent players include France’s Mistral AI, valued at US$6.2 billion; Cohere from Canada, valued at US$5.5 billion; and China’s Moonshot AI, valued at US$3.3 billion.

This category also includes the most well-funded AI unicorns, such as xAI, which has secured US$22,4 billion; and Anthropic, which has raised US$18.5 billion. These companies are also among the most valuable AI startups, worth US$75 billion and US$61.5 billion, respectively.

LLM developers are followed by AI agents, with eight ventures focusing on coding AI agents and copilots, and five specializing in AI agent development platforms. Notable examples include Seekr, an enterprise AI company focusing on enterprise AI for critical infrastructure markets; Helsing, which develops AI-powered defense systems for Western militaries; and Safe Superintelligence, which builds AI systems focused on safety and high capability.

Together, LLM developers and AI agent development platforms form the foundational infrastructure of AI, providing the building blocks for AI. Code AI agents and copilots, meanwhile, represent one of the most successful applications layers built on top of this foundation to date.

Most of today’s 100 AI startup unicorns emerged in 2024 (41 ventures), coinciding with the surge of interest following ChatGPT’s launch. Momentum has continued in 2025, with 31 unicorns minted so far.

Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT is a AI-powered chatbot that allows users to ask questions and then answer these questions with human-like responses. The app, owned by OpenAI boasts 700 million weekly active users. OpenAI is valued at a staggering US$300 million, making it the third most valuable startup in the world. The startup recently signed a US$100 billion deal with Nvidia and has received a total of US$11 billion in investment from Microsoft. It is now reportedly in talks to raise up to US$40 billion in a new funding round.

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