Unicorn Company Report: Within a one-hour drive in the U.S. Bay Area, housing 90% of the global AI market value

Author: Elad Gil (Data Analysis: Shreyan Jain)

Translation: Deep潮 TechFlow

Deep潮 Guide: Elad Gil’s team has tracked the distribution of global unicorn valuations for six consecutive years. The data for 2025 points to a clear conclusion: the San Francisco Bay Area is becoming a supercluster for generative AI, with 91% of the world’s AI unicorn market value within a one-hour drive. Meanwhile, the speed of new unicorns being born has slowed, but the average valuation of existing unicorns has reached a six-year high. This report reveals with hard data that the global entrepreneurial ecosystem’s power center is accelerating its tilt toward the United States and the Bay Area.

All data is as of December 31 of the respective year; in the text, “2025” refers to the market value as of December 31, 2025 / January 1, 2026.

Over the past two years, we have experienced market corrections after the zero-interest-rate era, explosive growth of frontier AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic, and ongoing debates about the “AI bubble.” Data shows that the Bay Area has evolved into an AI supercluster, with 91% of global AI private market value concentrated within a 1-hour drive radius.

For previous analyses, see: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023.

Core Findings

Generative AI makes the Bay Area a supercluster. The Bay Area currently accounts for about 39% of the global unicorn market value, more than four times the second-ranked city. A year ago, this figure was only 29%. If we look only at generative AI unicorns, the Bay Area’s share reaches 91%.

The absolute dominance of U.S. unicorns. Over the past year, the U.S. added nearly $1.2 trillion in unicorn market value, accounting for about 65% globally. Europe has surpassed China in market share but only holds about 10%.

The new generation of unicorns is more concentrated in the U.S. and the Bay Area. Among unicorns born in 2023 and later, the U.S. accounts for 83% of total market value, while those born before 2022 account for only 60%. The Bay Area’s share is even more striking: 63% for the new generation, 33% for the older.

The pace of new unicorn births is slowing. From 2022 to 2025, only about 300 new unicorns were added, compared to over 900 in the previous three years.

However, existing unicorns are more valuable than ever. While the total number of unicorns increased by only 6%, their total market value grew by 33%. The average market value per unicorn has reached its highest level in six years.

Valuation growth is mainly driven by AI companies. In 2025, the average valuation of generative AI unicorns increased by about $2.2 billion year-over-year, while non-AI unicorns increased by only about $400 million. The share of generative AI in the global unicorn market value skyrocketed from 2% in 2024 to 22%. The concentration in the Bay Area will only continue to expand.

Unicorns are increasingly clustered around specific industries. Among the top ten unicorns in the Bay Area, six are AI companies; in New York, seven are fintech/crypto firms; in Los Angeles, three of the top five are defense/aerospace companies (SpaceX, Anduril, Relativity, accounting for 83% of LA’s total market value), and four are consumer companies.

Data Notes

All raw data comes from CB Insights and can be viewed here. A few points to note:

Updates on private funding rounds in public datasets are delayed; some unicorn valuations may not be the latest. For example, the latest funding rounds for Anduril, Stripe, and SpaceX are not reflected in the data.

Unicorn market value is at best a rough, lagging proxy for entrepreneurial ecosystem activity, and there may be inaccuracies in mapping companies to valuations, cities, and industries. But we believe the data is generally accurate in the big picture.

Unicorn Concentration

The geographic concentration of global unicorn market value has reached an all-time high. The U.S. accounts for 65% of all unicorn market value, up from 58% a year ago and 44% in 2020. The U.S. share is roughly four times that of the second-place China.

Figure caption: Global share of unicorn market value by country (including three major outliers)

The unicorn market value in the Bay Area is also more than four times that of the second-ranked city, increasing from 29% in 2024 to 39%:

Figure caption: Global share of unicorn market value by city (including three major outliers)

Even excluding the three largest outliers—OpenAI ($500B), SpaceX ($400B), and ByteDance ($300B)—the ecosystem has continued to concentrate since 2019. The U.S. share has steadily increased, China’s share has steadily declined. Europe’s total unicorn market value surpassed China’s in 2024, with New York and London surpassing Beijing.

Figure caption: Global share of unicorn market value by country (excluding three major outliers)

Figure caption: Global share of unicorn market value by city (excluding three major outliers)

Super Concentration of Generative AI

Focusing only on the 97 unicorns whose core revenue comes from generative AI products/services, the cluster effect in the Bay Area is even more extreme. The Bay Area accounts for 91% of the global AI unicorn market value, with no other city exceeding 2%.

Figure caption: Distribution of generative AI unicorn market value by city

The total market value of generative AI unicorns is growing exponentially, with nearly all incremental value coming from the U.S., especially the Bay Area.

Figure caption: Total market value of generative AI unicorns (by country)

Figure caption: Total market value of generative AI unicorns (by city)

The valuation growth rate of AI unicorns far exceeds that of non-AI unicorns. In 2025, 48 AI companies, which are unicorns, increased their total market value by $778 billion. This exceeds the combined valuation increase of over 1,100 non-AI unicorns. Even excluding OpenAI (increase of about $343 billion) and Anthropic (about $334 billion), the average valuation of generative AI unicorns increased by about $2.2 billion YoY, five times the average growth of non-AI unicorns (about $440 million).

Figure caption: Market value growth comparison: AI unicorns vs non-AI unicorns

In relative share, generative AI companies grew from 2% of the global unicorn market value in 2023 to 22%. If this trend continues, the Bay Area’s monopoly on top AI companies and talent will further expand its share of the global unicorn market value.

Figure caption: Change in proportion of generative AI in total unicorn market value

(Note: We classify companies whose main revenue source is directly from generative AI as “generative AI.” The full list of companies can be viewed here. We include chip/hardware companies like Cerebras, TensTorrent, and infrastructure firms like CoreWeave, Crusoe, but do not include data infrastructure companies like Databricks that broadly support AI/ML workloads, nor robotics/defense companies like Anduril that use AI/ML for autonomous systems.)

New Unicorns

Figure caption: Number of new unicorns per year

After three years of high growth, the pace of new unicorn births has slowed significantly over the past three years. From December 2019 to December 2022, an average of over 300 companies became unicorns each year. From December 2022 to December 2025, this number dropped to about 100 per year, though there was a slight rebound in 2025 compared to the previous two years. Meanwhile, 45 companies lost unicorn status due to valuation drops or shutdowns over the past three years, compared to only 16 in the previous three, indicating that the correction of inflated valuations during the zero-interest-rate era is still ongoing.

Figure caption: Trend of unicorn count vs total market value

While the number of unicorns has remained roughly flat, total market value has grown significantly. Over the past year, global unicorn market value increased from about $4.4 trillion to about $5.8 trillion, a 33% rise. This is a strong rebound, especially considering that in 2023, total market value actually shrank YoY. Historically, valuation growth has been driven by new companies entering the unicorn club, but in 2025, about 80% of the market value growth came from existing unicorns’ valuation increases. As a result, the average market value per unicorn rose from about $3 billion to about $4.4 billion, the highest in six years. It’s harder to become a unicorn now, but once crossing the $1 billion threshold, these companies are, on average, more valuable and growing faster.

Figure caption: Trend of average unicorn market value

New Generation vs. Old Generation Unicorns

One way to exclude the inflated valuations of the zero-interest-rate era is to only look at unicorns born after 2023. Below is a comparison of the valuation distribution of unicorns born before and after 2023:

Figure caption: Distribution of unicorn market value born before 2023 (by country/city)

Figure caption: Distribution of unicorn market value born after 2023 (by country/city)

The new generation of unicorns is more concentrated in the U.S., with Europe and China’s shares declining. Among unicorns added since 2023, 63% of market value is in the Bay Area, while for the older batch, the Bay Area accounts for only 33%.

“Zombie” Unicorns

Of the nearly 1,000 unicorns in December 2021, about 60% have maintained unicorn status to date but have not completed any new funding rounds. These “zombie” unicorns have raised enough money during the zero-interest-rate era to survive until now but cannot surpass their valuation at the time. They collectively account for about $1.4 trillion of the current global unicorn market value, nearly 25% of the total.

Figure caption: Proportion of “zombie” vs. “active” unicorns among 2021 unicorns

The proportion of “active” unicorns (those that have completed new funding rounds since 2021) is much higher in the U.S. and Bay Area than in “zombie” unicorns. In contrast, Europe, India, Latin America, and New York have a higher concentration of “zombie” unicorns.

Figure caption: Distribution of “zombie” vs. “active” unicorn market value by country

Figure caption: Distribution of “zombie” vs. “active” unicorn market value by city

Four Major U.S. Unicorn Clusters

Within the U.S., four “industry cities” account for about 76% of unicorns and roughly 87% of unicorn market value: the Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, and Boston. The Bay Area is the clear leader, with more than twice the number of unicorns and over four times the market value of the second-ranked city.

Figure caption: Number of unicorns in major U.S. cities

Figure caption: Unicorn market value in major U.S. cities

Looking at the industry distribution of the top ten unicorns in each city reveals the clustering effect:

Bay Area = AI cluster (6 of top 10 are generative AI)

New York = Fintech/Crypto cluster (7 of top 10)

Los Angeles = Defense/Aerospace + Consumer cluster (3 of top 6 are defense/aerospace; 4 of top 10 are consumer)

Boston = Relatively balanced but leaning toward biotech/medical (3 of top 10)

Figure caption: Industry distribution of top 10 unicorns in the four major U.S. cities