According to the latest report, the artificial intelligence (AI) industry is rapidly rising, attracting a large amount of wealth and creating unprecedented billionaires. According to data from CB Insights, there are currently nearly 500 AI unicorn companies (private companies valued at over $1 billion) globally, with a total value reaching $2.7 trillion. In the past two years, 100 new unicorns have emerged from these companies, including well-known ones such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Scale AI.
The rapid development of the AI industry has allowed business leaders to join the ranks of billionaires without spending decades building the next big project; they just need to start an AI company. Notably, since 2023, 100 new unicorn companies have been established. Moreover, there are currently over 1,300 AI startups valued at more than $1 billion in the market.
For example, Thinking Machines Lab, founded by Mira Murati, former Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI, recently completed a $2 billion seed round, achieving a valuation of $12 billion. This phenomenon has led many industry insiders to believe that we are experiencing a tech boom similar to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when today's tech giants like eBay and Google emerged. Although it is not directly comparable to the "dot-com bubble" of that time, it is certain that AI is creating billionaires at an unprecedented rate and may usher in an era of "trillionaires."
With the surge in company valuations, founders, investors, and executives have also gained considerable wealth. According to Bloomberg, as of March this year, the four largest private AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Safe Superintelligence, and Anysphere, have at least created 15 billionaires, with their combined net worth reaching $38 billion. Since then, dozens of new unicorn companies have been established.
AI startups have attracted significant investment, leading to rapid valuation increases, and the wealth of founders and early investors has also risen accordingly. According to Crunchbase, global venture capital funding in 2024 has exceeded the total amount of 2023, with the largest increase in AI. For instance, Dario Amodei, one of the founders and CEO of Anthropic, is negotiating to raise $5 billion at a valuation of $170 billion. Meanwhile, Liang Wenfeng, founder and CEO of DeepSeek, is expected to have a net worth exceeding $1 billion due to the valuation of his low-cost AI company.
As AI investment continues to grow, the net worth of executives at companies such as Nvidia and Palantir is also increasing rapidly. Nvidia's CFO Colette Kress and Executive Vice President Jay Puri have become billionaires, and CEO Jensen Huang's personal wealth has significantly increased after the company's market value exceeded $4 trillion.
Key points:
1. 🚀 There are already 498 AI unicorns globally, with a total value of $2.7 trillion, attracting a lot of investment and wealth.
2. 💰 In the past two years, 100 new unicorn companies in the AI industry have shown a strong growth trend.
3. 🌟 The wealth of AI founders and investors has surged, with multiple billionaires emerging, and a future era of "trillionaires" may come.