In 2026, the wave of investments in artificial intelligence has generated a record number of new startups valued at over one billion dollars, the so-called unicorns. According to data collected by Crunchbase and PitchBook, nearly 40 new companies joined this exclusive club in the first six months of the year. Surprisingly, although most are AI-related, some operate in fields such as healthcare, defense, and even cryptocurrencies.
From AI workspace to space defense: the most capitalized new unicorns
Among the emerging companies, Recursive stands out, a research lab founded in 2025 with a valuation of $4.65 billion. The company raised $650 million in a Series A round led by GV and Greycroft. In second place by value, MiRus, a cardiovascular and orthopedic medical device company, valued at $4.41 billion after a $1.5 billion late-stage round with Boston Scientific. Next is MainFunc, developing the AI workspace Genspark, valued at $2.6 billion after a $485 million Series B round. Another notable startup is Corgi, valued at $2.6 billion, an insurance platform for startups covering cyber and professional risks, with a $105 million Series B1 from TCV.
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Space industry and AI hardware attract huge capital
Interest in space as an energy resource led to the birth of Cowboy Space, valued at $2 billion. The company aims to build an orbital power grid to power AI on Earth and raised $305 million in a Series B round led by Index Ventures. Starcloud, developing space data centers, also reached a valuation of $1.1 billion. On the AI hardware front, Positron, founded in 2024, builds custom chips for AI inference and was valued at $1.06 billion after a $234 million Series B round.
Cybersecurity, finance, and automation: niche unicorns
In cybersecurity, Socket became a unicorn with a $1 billion valuation for supply chain attack protection. For wealth management, Farther reached $1.25 billion with a $150 million round led by General Atlantic. In enterprise automation, Core Automation, founded just in 2026, achieved a $1 billion valuation with a $100 million seed round. In the medical field, Forus automates benefit verification and claims processing to accelerate care, reaching $1.01 billion.
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As recently reported in one of our articles, Bending Spoons made its Nasdaq debut with a valuation of over $25 billion, a signal that the IPO market remains vibrant for tech startups. According to Crunchbase's definition, a unicorn is a private startup with a valuation exceeding one billion dollars (Wikipedia source).
