Unicorns founded by immigrants
US billion-dollar companies founded by immigrants include SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, Stripe and Epic Games
By The Immigrant Times (IMT)
Immigrants to the US who founded billion-dollar companies include Elon Musk (SpaceX and Tesla), Jack Clark (Anthropic) and Aravind Srinivas (Perplexity)
October 2026: Immigrants have founded or co-founded 59 per cent of America’s privately held start-ups valued at $1 billion or more, says Stuart Anderson, the principal author of recently released research
The study 'Immigrants and US Billion-Dollar Companies' reveals that 455 of 775 US 'unicorn' companies* have at least one foreign-born founder. These entrepreneurs come from 76 countries. India is the leading country of origin, with founders for 96 of the billion-dollar companies, followed by Israel (60), the United Kingdom (47), China (41), and Canada (30).
*A unicorn company is a privately held startup valued at over US$1 billion. Venture capitalist Aileen Lee coined the term in 2013 to show how rare these high-value businesses are before they go public or are acquired.
The highest-valued billion-dollar companies in the US
(Note: Profiles list only foreign-born co-founders, though some companies include US-born co-founders. Financial and employment data as of April 2026).
SpaceX
Founded: 2002
Founders/Co-founders: Elon Musk (South Africa)
Business activities: Rockets, satellites and AI. Elon Musk has said that he plans to integrate Tesla (electric vehicles) with SpaceX.
No of employees: 25,700
Valuation: $1.5 trillion
(*Please note SpaceX was privately held at the time of the research but was listed on Nasdaq in June 2026)
Anthropic
Founded: 2021
Founders/Co-founders: Jack Clark (UK)
Business activities: AI safety, research
No of employees: 1,500
Valuation: $965 billion
OpenAI
Founded: 2015
Founders/Co-founders: Elon Musk (South Africa), Ilya Sutskever (Canada), Wojciech Zaremba (Poland)
Business activities: AI research and deployment
No of employees: 5,000
Valuation: $852 billion
Databricks
Founded: 2013
Founders/Co-founders: Ali Ghodsi (Iran), Ion Stoica (Romania), Matei Zaharia (Romania), Reynold Xin (China), Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji (Iran)
Business activities: Data and AI platform
No of employees: 8,000
Valuation: $134 billion
Stripe
Founded: 2010
Founders/Co-founders: John Collison (Ireland), Patrick Collison (Ireland)
Business activities: Digital payments company
No of employees: 10,000
Valuation: $106.7 billion
Ramp Financial
Founded: 2019
Founders/Co-founders: Karim Atiyeh (Lebanon)
Business activities: Finance automation platform for businesses
No of employees: 1,200
Valuation: $32.0 billion
Safe Superintelligence
Founded: 2024
Founders/Co-founders:
Ilya Sutskever (Canada), Daniel Gross (Israel)
Business activities: Safe AI
No of employees: 20
Valuation: $32.0 billion
Anysphere
Founded: 2022
Founders/Co-founders: Sualeh Asif (Pakistan), Arvid Lunnemark (Sweden)
Business activities: AI applied research lab
No of employees: 300
Valuation: $29.3 billion
Cerebras Systems
Founded: 2015
Founders/Co-founders: Jean-Philippe Fricker (Switzerland)
Business activities: Computer systems for AI
No of employees: 754
Valuation: $23.0 billion
Epic Games
Founded: 1991
Founders/Co-founders: Mark Rein (Canada)
Business activities: Video games and software
No of employees: 3,500
Valuation: $22.5 billion
Chobani
Founded: 2005
Founders/Co-founders: Hamdi Ulukaya (Turkey)
Business activities: Specialising in Greek yoghurt
No of employees: 2,041
Valuation: $20.0 billion
Perplexity
Founded: 2022
Founders/Co-founders: Aravind Srinivas (India), Denis Yarats (Belarus)
Business activities: AI answer tool
No of employees: 250
Valuation: $20.0 billion
Main findings from the study 'Immigrants and US billion-dollar companies'
International students
The US higher education system remains a crucial talent pipeline. Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of billion-dollar company founders initially entered the US as international students. The reliance on foreign talent is particularly stark in advanced scientific and engineering programmes; international students currently make up 80 per cent of full-time graduate students in computer and information sciences at US universities.
The value of Unicorns
The combined valuation of immigrant-founded unicorns has reached $5 trillion, surpassing the total market capitalisation of all but seven countries. These enterprises are also major domestic employers, creating an average of 833 jobs per company.
The geographic footprint of these startups is highly concentrated. Over half (243) are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, meaning 69 per cent of the region's unicorns have an immigrant founder. Labour economist Mark Regets notes in the report that this density highlights how clusters of technical skills drive innovation.
Visa restrictions frustrate entrepreneurial immigrants
Despite these economic contributions, the US lacks a dedicated startup visa, a proposal excluded from the 2022 Chips and Science Act. As a result, founders must navigate restrictive traditional pathways, arriving as refugees, family-sponsored immigrants, or through employer sponsorship.
Nevertheless, many thrive as serial entrepreneurs. The NFAP study identifies 15 immigrants who have built multiple billion-dollar enterprises. These include Noubar Afeyan, the Lebanese-born co-founder of the pharmaceutical company Moderna, and Al Goldstein, a refugee from Uzbekistan who launched two billion-dollar financial-technology firms.
Methodology
Anderson’s research draws on venture capital data from CB Insights, stock market capitalisation figures from Yahoo Finance, and demographic university data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
Further reading from The Immigrant Times: Undocumented immigrants make America richer || Trump favours immigrants with money over those with skills || Trump demands fewer foreign students ||
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