Biggest AI companies: most valuable private AI companies by latest valuation

Key Findings

• Anthropic raised $65 billion in a Series H at a $965 billion post-money valuation on May 28, 2026, making it the most valuable private AI company. (Anthropic: Series H)
• OpenAI closed a $122 billion funding round at an $852 billion post-money valuation on March 31, 2026, anchored by Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank. (The Next Web: OpenAI's $122B round)
• OpenAI was close to finalizing a round of up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation, led by UAE investors and Coatue, CNBC reported on October 22, 2026. (CNBC: OpenAI nears round at $1.25T valuation)
• Databricks closed a $5 billion round at a $190 billion valuation on August 13, 2026, six months after a round that valued it at $134 billion. (CNBC: Databricks wraps $5B round)
• DeepSeek's first external funding round raised about 50 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) at a post-money valuation above 350 billion yuan ($52 billion), Caixin reported in July 2026. (Caixin Global: DeepSeek reaches $52 billion valuation)
• Mistral AI raised EUR 3 billion at a post-money valuation above EUR 21 billion (about $24.4 billion) in September 2026, which it called the largest equity round by a European tech company. (TechCrunch: Mistral raises EUR 3B)
• SpaceX acquired xAI in a share exchange announced in February 2026 that valued the combined company at $1.25 trillion, the largest merger on record, CNBC reported. (CNBC: xAI, SpaceX merger valued at $1.25 trillion)
• SpaceX closed its $60 billion acquisition of AI coding company Cursor in August 2026, removing one of the largest AI startups from the private market. (TechCrunch: SpaceX closes Cursor acquisition)
• AI chipmaker Etched raised $700 million at a $21 billion valuation in August 2026, about a month after a Series C at $10.3 billion. (TechCrunch: Etched's valuation doubles to $21B)
• Nvidia had a market capitalization of $5.24 trillion on October 28, 2026, the largest of any public company. (Stock Analysis: NVDA market cap)

Figures

Most valuable private AI companies, ranked by latest valuation

Largest public AI companies by market cap

Market cap as of October 28, 2026 (intraday), as shown on each company's Stock Analysis market-cap page, which was read on that date. Share prices move every trading day, so treat these as a snapshot. Apple ($5.03T on the same date) is left out because AI is not its core business.

Acquired, public or excluded companies

• xAI is a wholly owned SpaceX subsidiary after a share exchange in February 2026 (CNBC); it appears through SpaceX in the public table.
• Cursor (Anysphere) became part of SpaceX when a $60 billion acquisition closed in August 2026 (TechCrunch).
• Hugging Face agreed in September 2026 to be acquired by Nvidia for nearly $13 billion (Reuters), so it is left out of the private ranking.
• Cerebras and CoreWeave are listed companies and appear in the public table.
• Large private companies whose main business is not AI (for example ByteDance) and units of public companies (for example Alphabet's Waymo) are excluded by design.

How AI company valuations are reported

• Post-money valuation is the company's value right after a round closes, including the new cash. Most startup announcements use it, and it is the default here.
• Pre-money valuation excludes the new money. Several 2026 reports (OpenAI's October talks, Reflection AI, Poolside) were stated pre-money, so they are labeled.
• Tender offers and secondaries let employees and early holders sell existing shares to new investors. No new money goes to the company, and the price can sit above or below the last priced round (ElevenLabs at $22 billion; Anduril's open tender at about $90 billion).
• Strategic investments come from a partner such as Meta in Scale AI or Nvidia in Poolside. They often come bundled with commercial deals, so the headline valuation can mean less than in a normal venture round.
• Reported talks are figures from people familiar with a deal before it closes. Terms often change, so this table uses talks only when no priced round exists (Discovery Loop) and otherwise mentions them in the Note column.

Why AI valuations move

Private AI valuations change in jumps, not daily. A company keeps its last priced valuation until it raises again, so a figure from 2025 can sit next to one from last week. Large step-ups in 2026 followed revenue growth (Fireworks AI said it passed $1 billion in annualized revenue when it raised at $17.5 billion in July), access to compute, and competition among investors for a small number of labs. Strategic investors such as Nvidia, Amazon and Samsung often invest alongside supply or licensing agreements, which can lift headline numbers. Valuations can also stay flat for long stretches: Scale AI, Perplexity and Thinking Machines Lab are still listed at figures set in 2025, even though later talks or deals were reported for some of them. Because each company is valued only when it transacts, the ranking can shift sharply when a single round closes.

Methodology

Scope: privately held companies whose main product is AI models, AI infrastructure (chips, data centers, inference), or AI applications, including defense and robotics companies built around AI. Wholly owned subsidiaries, acquired companies and listed companies are excluded from the private ranking.

Valuation rule: each company is ranked by its latest priced valuation (a funding round, tender offer, strategic investment or merger), with the basis stated. Reported talks are used only when no priced valuation exists, and are labeled. Later talks above the last priced figure are listed in the Note column, not used for ranking.

Every figure was checked on the cited source between October 28 and 29, 2026: the company's own announcement where one exists, otherwise Reuters, Bloomberg (via outlets that cite it), CNBC, TechCrunch, Caixin and similar outlets. Figures in other currencies use the USD conversion stated by the source; no numbers were estimated or computed for this table.

Where sources disagree, the table follows the source cited and notes the gap: Wayve's round is $1.2B per CNBC and $1.5B per Wayve; OpenAI's October 2026 talks were reported at $1.4T pre-money earlier in the month and $1.25T on October 22.

Founded years and headquarters reflect company descriptions; a dash means the founding year was not clearly published. Public market caps are intraday values read from Stock Analysis on October 28, 2026.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the biggest AI company in the world?

By market value, Nvidia is the biggest AI company, with a market cap of $5.24 trillion on October 28, 2026, per Stock Analysis. Among private AI companies, Anthropic is the largest at a $965 billion post-money valuation from its May 2026 Series H, ahead of OpenAI at $852 billion from March 2026.

Is OpenAI or Anthropic worth more?

On priced rounds, Anthropic is worth more: $965 billion (May 2026) against OpenAI's $852 billion (March 2026). That could flip soon. CNBC reported on October 22, 2026 that OpenAI was close to raising up to $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre-money valuation. Until that round closes, the $852 billion figure is OpenAI's latest priced valuation.

What is xAI worth now?

xAI no longer has its own valuation. SpaceX acquired it in a share exchange in February 2026; CNBC reported that bank documents valued xAI at between $219 billion and $294 billion in the deal. SpaceX listed on Nasdaq in June 2026 and had a market cap of about $1.97 trillion on October 28, 2026.

What are the largest AI startups outside the United States?

Outside the US, the largest private AI companies in this table are DeepSeek (about $52 billion, China), Moonshot AI ($50 billion reported, China), Mistral AI (about $24.4 billion, France), Cohere ($20 billion after its Aleph Alpha merger, Canada) and Helsing ($18 billion, Germany). Lovable, Nscale and Wayve are the largest from Sweden and the UK.

How many AI unicorns are there?

Counts depend on the source and on how a company is defined as AI, and they change weekly. Every company in this table is worth at least $4.5 billion, well past the $1 billion unicorn threshold. The table covers the 45 most valuable private AI companies with a verifiable, dated valuation, not every AI unicorn.

How are private AI company valuations calculated?

A private valuation is set when investors buy shares at a price per share; multiplying that price by all shares gives the valuation. Post-money includes the new cash, pre-money does not. Tender offers price existing shares that employees sell. Because there is no daily trading, a private valuation stays fixed until the next transaction, unlike a public company's market cap.

Which AI companies have gone public?

Listed AI-centric companies include SpaceX (which owns xAI and Cursor and listed on Nasdaq in June 2026), CoreWeave and Cerebras Systems. Moonshot AI has filed confidentially for a Hong Kong IPO, CNBC described OpenAI's October 2026 round as a bridge ahead of a potential IPO, and Lambda is reported to be planning a 2027 IPO.

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Version History

• October 29, 2026: First published with 45 records, each linked to its source.

Spotted an error or a missing record? Every row links to its source; corrections are made and dated on this page. See all datasets.