Unicorns

A unicorn is a private startup valued at $1 billion or more. Once rare, there are now more than a thousand. Here is where the term came from, what happens when unicorns go public and how private and public values can differ.

From rare to common

The term “unicorn” was coined in 2013 for private startups worth $1 billion or more, because they were so rare. Cheap money and huge funds pushed the count to more than a thousand worldwide. Companies worth $10 billion or more are sometimes called decacorns, and in 2026 a few AI companies were privately valued near $1 trillion.

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