Unicorn Valuations Crest Higher

When the term unicorn first entered startup parlance in 2013, VC-backed private companies with billion-dollar-plus valuations were still relatively rare creatures.

How long ago that seems.

This week, generative AI heavyweight Anthropic became the latest one-time unicorn to surpass the $60 billion valuation threshold.

The San Francisco-based company announced Monday that it secured $3.5 billion at a $61.5 billion post-money valuation in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The financing followed the launch of the latest version of its popular AI chatbot and agent, Claude.

There was a time when a venture-backed startup at such a lofty value would be in a lonely bracket. Lately, however, the ranks of ultra-high-valuation unicorns are looking increasingly crowded.

Currently, at least seven U.S. venture-backed, private companies have last reported valuations over $45 billion. Several are also reportedly on the verge of new financings at much higher values.

Here’s a quick rundown:

• SpaceX: Founded in 2002, Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX is no longer a startup. However, it is the most highly valued U.S. private, venture-backed company, hitting a reported $350 billion valuation in a secondary share sale late last year.
• OpenAI: San Francisco-based OpenAI secured a $157 billion valuation when it raised its last round, a $6.6 billion October financing. More recently, the Sam Altman-led generative AI company is reportedly looking to raise $40 billion in a SoftBank-backed round at a jaw-dropping $260 billion pre-money valuation.
• Stripe: Payments infrastructure provider Stripe, based in South San Francisco, garnered a $91.5 billion valuation for a tender offer it announced last week with the aim of providing liquidity to current and former employees.
• Databricks: San Francisco data analytics platform Databricks confirmed in January that it completed a previously announced $10 billion in Series J equity financing at a $62 billion valuation.
• xAI: The last round for 2-year-old xAI was a $6 billion November Series C at a reported $50 billion valuation. In February, the company was reportedly discussing a roughly $10 billion funding round at a $75 billion valuation.
• Waymo: Alphabet’s autonomous driving spinoff closed a $5.6 billion Series C last summer at a reported valuation of $45 billion.

More gains ahead?

The public market contraction of the past two weeks aside, momentum seems to be on the side of high-valuation unicorns. Leading artificial intelligence startups, in particular, have demonstrated the ability to raise consecutive rounds in quick succession at ever-escalating prices.

Hopefully, more of these names will be making it to public markets in coming quarters. If not, there appears to be plenty of capital to tide them over.

Related reading:

• The Crunchbase Unicorn Board
• OpenAI Raises $6.6B At $157B Valuation
• Databricks Raises $10B In 2024’s Largest Venture Funding Deal

Illustration: Dom Guzman