China sees quickest growth in unicorn companies: ranking

BEIJING, July 1 (Xinhua) -- China's unicorn enterprises are experiencing the most rapid growth globally, with a significant concentration in sectors including advanced manufacturing, automotive technology, fintech, corporate services and artificial intelligence, according to new data.

China has seen the inclusion of 32 new companies in the 2024 Global Unicorn Top 500 Enterprises, which were announced last Friday in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, marking the largest increase among all countries.

The cumulative valuation of enterprises featured on the annual list has soared to nearly 30 trillion yuan (4.2 trillion U.S. dollars), marking a robust 7 percent increase from the previous year, the state broadcaster China Central Television reported.

Unicorns are startups valued at more than one billion U.S. dollars.

Companies from the United States and China together make up about three quarters of the total, and ByteDance, SpaceX, and OpenAI are the top three, according to the ranking.

Another report released in April at the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum shows that China is home to 369 unicorn companies, accounting for more than a quarter of the global unicorn population.

Benefiting from China's immense market scale, robust industrial infrastructure, and robust policy support, a confluence of innovative elements is being directed towards tech enterprises, said Xie Shujiang, director of the unicorn enterprise innovation branch under the China Association of Inventions.

"This has facilitated the swift commercialization and scaling of new quality productive forces, propelling the economic transformation and upgrading," Xie added.