The AI Unicorn Club: Startups That Hit $1B+ Valuations in 2025 (So Far)
Discover the full list of AI startups that reached a $1B+ valuation in 2025. See who’s leading the AI unicorn race with funding totals, investors, and sector insights.
Call it the year of the AI unicorn. Despite tighter capital markets, a new crop of AI startups is reaching billion-dollar status — and fast. From enterprise infra to defense and automation, these companies aren’t just riding the hype… they’re building the future.
This is your running list of AI startups that have reached a $1 billion+ valuation in 2025, with details on how much they’ve raised, who’s backing them, and what they’re building.
(We’ll keep this list updated as the unicorn herd grows: bookmark it or subscribe to our free newsletter to stay updated.)
| Company | Location | Valuation | Funding Details | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anysphere (Cursor) | San Francisco, CA | ~$9.9B | $900M Series C led by Thrive, a16z, Accel | AI coding assistant |
| Mistral AI | Paris, France | ~$14B | €2B Series X led by ASML | Foundation Models / LLMs |
| Thinking Machines Lab | San Francisco, CA | ~$12B | $2B early-stage round led by a16z | Foundation Models |
| Perplexity AI | San Francisco, CA | ~$14B | Series B 2025 (multi-hundred M$) | AI Search / Agents |
| PsiQuantum | Palo Alto, CA | ~$7B | $1B Series E; Nvidia among investors | Quantum Computing Infrastructure |
| Reflection AI | San Francisco, CA | ~$5.5B | Raised round led by Nvidia ($1B commitment) | AI Coding Automation |
| ReliaQuest | Tampa, FL | $3.4B | $500M+ raised | AI Security Operations |
| Shield AI | Washington, DC | $5.3B | $240M Series F-1 | Defense / Autonomy Software |
| Databricks | San Francisco, CA | ~$45B | $15B Series J + $5.25B credit line | AI & Data Infrastructure |
| Groq | Mountain View, CA | ~$1.5B | $1.5B commitment from Saudi Arabia | AI Inference Hardware |
| Together AI | San Francisco, CA | $3.3B | $305M Series B | AI Acceleration Cloud |
| Cyberhaven | Palo Alto, CA | $1B | $100M Series D | Data Security |
| Redpanda | San Francisco, CA | $1B | $100M Series D | Real-time AI Data Platform |
| OpenEvidence | Cambridge, MA | $1B | Series A (undisclosed, led by Sequoia) | Health AI |
| Hightouch | San Francisco, CA | $1.2B | $80M Series C | Data & AI for Marketing |
| Tines | Boston & Dublin | $1.125B | $125M Series C | AI-powered workflows |
| Fractal Analytics | Mumbai, India | $2.44B | $170M secondary sale; IPO-bound | Enterprise AI / Analytics |
What’s New in 2025
- Global expansion: Mistral AI (France) and PsiQuantum (quantum hardware) bring international and emerging infrastructure depth.
- Frontier infrastructure: Thinking Machines and PsiQuantum double down on core AI and quantum compute capabilities.
- Agentic tooling: Perplexity and Reflection are scaling AI search and code-generation—highlighting the shift toward AI productivity enablers.
Key Takeaways from This Year’s Unicorns
- Sector specialization wins: Many unicorns dominate high-stakes verticals—security, defense, data ops, healthcare, law—instead of chasing horizontal hype.
- Compute and infra are critical: The backbone companies (Mistral, Thinking Machines, PsiQuantum) are pulling in massive capital—underscoring the ongoing AI compute arms race.
- Diverse investor confidence: Funding sources range from VCs (a16z, Thrive) to strategic partners (ASML, Nvidia) and sovereign-like capital structures.
- Geographical spread: Unicorns now emerge from Europe, Silicon Valley, Australia (PsiQuantum operations), and India (Fractal), defending—rather than doubling—the U.S.’ dominance.
