By Jin Yuhan

On June 26, the Hurun Research Institute released its Global Unicorn Index 2025, a ranking of the world's unicorns, defined as start-ups founded in the 2000s, worth at least a billion dollars and not yet listed on a public exchange. The cut-off was 1 January 2025, with significant changes in valuation updated up to the date of release. Hurun Research has been tracking unicorns since 2017.

A record 1,523 companies made the list this year, up by 70 from last year. The United States and China dominated the rankings, with 758 and 343 companies, respectively, together accounting for over two-thirds of the global total. SpaceX, OpenAI, and ByteDance took the top three spots.

Three companies from Ningbo earned places on the prestigious list: Rong Semiconductor (Ningbo) Co., Ltd. valued at 17 billion yuan, ranked 510th globally), Axera Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (valued at 9.5 billion yuan, ranked 958th), and Ningbo Keyuan Petrochemicals Co., Ltd. (valued at 8 billion yuan, ranked 1104th).

Rong Semiconductor has remained on the global unicorn list since its founding in April 2021. Earlier this year, on April 9, the company broke ground on a 12-inch integrated circuit chip production facility in Ningbo. The project carries a total investment of 16 billion yuan and is expected to reach a monthly output of 35,000 12-inch wafers once operational.

Axera Semiconductor and Keyuan Petrochemicals are both new entrants to the list. In April, Axera completed its Series C funding round, raising over 1 billion yuan. However, the new valuation was not reflected in this year's Hurun ranking, suggesting the company could climb higher if it remains unlisted through next year.

Keyuan Petrochemicals completed the first tranche of its Series D financing at the start of the year, achieving a valuation of 8 billion yuan. Founded in 2007 with a registered capital of 743 million yuan, the company specializes in refined chemicals and has comprehensive facilities to process residual oil into finished products.

Ningbo has seen several unicorns go public in recent years, including ZEEKR, Jenscare Scientific Co., Ltd., and Forehope Electronic (Ningbo) Co., Ltd. Looking ahead, emerging companies such as GravityXR, SynSense, and Bluetron (supOS) are considered strong contenders for future inclusion in the global unicorn rankings.