{"slug": "china-records-most-new-unicorn-start-ups-in-5-years-as-ai-and-robotics-boom", "title": "China records most new unicorn start-ups in 5 years as AI and robotics boom", "summary": "China minted 67 new unicorn start-ups in the first half of 2026, the highest in nearly five years, driven by a boom in artificial intelligence and robotics. AI and robotics accounted for over 53% of the new unicorns, with DeepSeek leading as the most valuable at $59.2 billion.", "body_md": "# China records most new unicorn start-ups in 5 years as AI and robotics boom\n\nThe pace is the fastest since 2021 though momentum for some start-ups remains uncertain, according to a new report\n\n[Coco Feng](/author/coco-feng)in Guangdong\n\nChina’s innovation ecosystem has witnessed a resurgence, minting 67 new unicorn start-ups in the first half of 2026 – the biggest increase in almost five years – as AI and robotics kick off a new investment cycle.\n\nThe growth translates into an average of one new unicorn – private companies valued at US$1 billion or more – in less than every three days and was the highest since the second half of 2021 when 76 new unicorns were created, according to a Monday report by ITJuzi, a start-up database.\n\nThe momentum was tightly clustered around two cutting-edge industries – artificial intelligence and robotics – which together accounted for more than 53 per cent of the cohort. This differed from the previous cycle between 2021 and 2022, when large start-ups spanned multiple sectors including new-energy vehicles, biomedicine and online consumer businesses.\n\n[DeepSeek](https://www.scmp.com/topics/deepseek?module=inline&pgtype=article)was the biggest star of the past six months. The Hangzhou-based AI firm just closed its first-ever external fundraising at a valuation of about 400 billion yuan (US$59.2 billion), the highest in the past six months and the fourth largest among all unicorns in China, following\n\n[ByteDance](https://www.scmp.com/topics/bytedance?module=inline&pgtype=article),\n\n[Ant Group](https://www.scmp.com/topics/ant-group?module=inline&pgtype=article)and\n\n[Shein](https://www.scmp.com/topics/shein?module=inline&pgtype=article).\n\nBut most of the new unicorns – about 78 per cent – were valued between US$1 billion and US$2 billion, suggesting they were still “in the early stages of growth”, according to the report. No companies fell into the US$5 billion to US$10 billion bracket, which marked a valuation jump between “unicorns” and “super unicorns”.\n\n[OpenAI’s](https://www.scmp.com/topics/openai?module=inline&pgtype=article)release of ChatGPT in late 2022, which sparked entrepreneurs’ passion for generative AI worldwide.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-records-most-new-unicorn-start-ups-in-5-years-as-ai-and-robotics-boom", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3359629/china-records-most-new-unicorn-start-ups-5-years-ai-and-robotics-boom?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-07-07 02:00:15+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-07 02:42:13.363403+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "robotics", "ai-startups", "ai-products", "generative-ai"], "entities": ["DeepSeek", "ByteDance", "Ant Group", "Shein", "OpenAI", "ITJuzi", "ChatGPT"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-records-most-new-unicorn-start-ups-in-5-years-as-ai-and-robotics-boom", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-records-most-new-unicorn-start-ups-in-5-years-as-ai-and-robotics-boom.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-records-most-new-unicorn-start-ups-in-5-years-as-ai-and-robotics-boom.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/china-records-most-new-unicorn-start-ups-in-5-years-as-ai-and-robotics-boom.jsonld"}}