China now home to 369 unicorns, with an average value of US$3.8 billion, led by AI and semiconductor firms, report says

China is now home to 369 unicorns – start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion – with more than a quarter of these companies involved in the nation’s artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor sectors, according to a new report.

These Chinese unicorns have an average valuation of US$3.8 billion, according to a report jointly published on Sunday by five institutions – including professional services giant KPMG, the Zhongguancun Unicorn Company Development Alliance and consultancy Great Wall Enterprise Institute – at this year’s edition of the five-day Zhongguancun (ZGC) Forum, which concluded on Monday in Beijing.

Across 16 sectors, AI unicorns are the highest valued, at an average of US$6.76 billion, followed by financial technology firms at US$6.57 billion, the report said. The number of unicorns in the AI and semiconductor sectors accounted for 14.1 per cent and 12.2 per cent, respectively, of the 369 total.

China, however, continues to remain behind the United States in the overall number of unicorns, according to the report, which did not cover the mainland firms’ peers in the US.

There were more than 700 unicorns based in the US and over 340 in China in last year’s global tally of 1,453, according to the Global Unicorn Index 2024, published by the Hurun Research Institute earlier this month.