In 2024, China added 32 new companies to the list of the world’s top 500 unicorns, the largest increase recorded by any country. This growth was recently announced in Qingdao, a city in the eastern region of China. The cumulative valuation of these companies has reached nearly 30 trillion yuan ($4.2 trillion), representing a solid 7% increase over the previous year, according to data from China Central Television.
For those unfamiliar with the term, “unicorn company” refers to a start-up valued at more than $1 billion. This year, companies from the United States and China account for three-quarters of the total number of unicorns, with giants such as ByteDance, SpaceX and OpenAI leading the rankings.