AI Services And Robotics Lead Diverse Crop Of 29 New May Unicorns As SpaceX, Anthropic And OpenAI Line Up Blockbuster Exits

A total of 29 companies joined The Crunchbase Unicorn Board in May, but the standout trend was not new AI models, but rather the businesses helping enterprises put AI to work.  OpenAI and Anthropic each launched multibillion-dollar deployment ventures staffed with forward-deployed engineers, while a long list of startups building AI infrastructure, autonomous software and robotics also reached unicorn status. Together, the new entrants point to where investors increasingly see value creation: turning AI advances into real-world applications and pairing software intelligence with physical automation.

Beyond AI, new unicorns were minted across many sectors including healthcare, quantum, aerospace, financial services, manufacturing, e-commerce and energy.  China dominated in the robotics sector, while Canada did so in quantum. The single new legaltech unicorn last month was from Brazil. OnlyFans also joined the board this past month, as the adult creator content company raised its first external financing.  Of the new unicorns, 17 are U.S-based, while four each are based in China and the UK. Two new unicorns joined the board from Canada, as one each from India and Brazil.  Unicorn IPOs The board’s total value is undergoing rapid fluctuations amid lofty new valuations for some of the largest new unicorns, as well as high-profile exits to the public markets. The Unicorn Board reached $9.9 trillion in value in May, as Anthropic moved ahead of OpenAI to become the second most valued private company after SpaceX. On the heels of the funding, Anthropic privately filed for an IPO, followed shortly thereafter by OpenAI’s own confidential filing.  SpaceX is expected to list this Friday, in what would be the largest-ever IPO. Its listing will erase more than one-tenth of value from the board as the the Elon Musk-led company exits the private markets.  Chip company Cerebras went public in May in a blockbuster IPO that valued the company at $56.4 billion, well above its last private valuation of $23 billion just three months earlier in February.  New unicorns in May Here are May’s new unicorn companies, including 10 companies that are less than 3-years old:  AI deployment San Francisco-based OpenAI Deployment Company raised a $4 billion private equity round led by TPG with co-leads Advent International, Bain Capital and Brookfield. The new company is majority owned by OpenAI with partnerships with 19 investment firms and consultancies. OpenAI acquired Tomoro, with its 150 forward-deployed engineers to support enterprises in this effort. The less than 1-year-old-based company was valued at $14 billion in the new funding, which it said will be used to scale operations and acquire companies.  Anthropic Applied AI JV raised a $1.5 billion private equity funding to build an AI services company to work with companies to bring Claude into their operations. Each of the co-leads — Anthropic, private equity investor Blackstone Group and legal firm Hellman & Friedman — invested $300 million into the round. Goldman Sachs and Sequoia Capital also invested in the joint venture. The less than 1-year-old-based, San Francisco-based company’s valuation was not disclosed. Exa, a company building search for AI agents, raised a $250 million Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz. The 5-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $2.2 billion and is used by coding agents, go-to-market agents and chat agents.  Boston-based autonomous AI software developer Blitzy raised a $200 million Series A led by Northzone.