Immigrants Found Majority of US Unicorn Companies, Study Finds

A new study by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) has found that immigrants founded or co-founded the majority of privately held US startup companies valued at $1 billion or more, with Indians emerging as some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the country. The findings come at a time when immigration remains a hot political topic in the United States. Today, most immigrant entrepreneurs arrive in America through family sponsorship, employer-sponsored visas, refugee programs or as international students. The study found that immigrants have founded or co-founded 455 of America’s 775 privately held unicorn companies, which are collectively worth about $5 trillion. Unicorns are startups valued at $1 billion or more. That means 59% of all US unicorns have at least one immigrant founder. The report, written by Stuart Anderson, also found that immigrant influence extends well beyond company founders. Around 66% of America’s unicorn companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Nearly 80% of unicorn firms have either an immigrant founder or an immigrant serving in a major leadership position, such as chief executive officer or vice president of engineering. To compile the report, researchers gathered information on more than 700 privately held startups valued at over $1 billion as of April 2026. The value of these companies has also surged dramatically. In 2016, immigrant-founded unicorns were collectively valued at $168 billion. Today, they are worth more than $5 trillion, representing a staggering increase of 2,876%. The study also found that immigrant-founded unicorn companies create significant employment. On average, each company employs around 833 people. The report notes that this figure does not include more than $768 billion in market value from immigrant-founded unicorns that have already gone public since 2016. The report and related analysis show India as one of the biggest contributors to America’s unicorn boom. According to the report, India has produced 96 people who moved to the United States and went on to start billion-dollar companies. According to him, no other country comes close to that figure. With around 5 million people of Indian origin living in the United States , the numbers suggest that nearly one in every 50,000 Indian-Americans has become the founder of a unicorn company. India has sent 96 people to America who started billion dollar companies. No one else is even close. There's only about 5 million Indians in America. Almost one in 50,000 of them is a unicorn founder! What a holy, special, beautiful people. I will always fight for them. pic.twitter.com/U4I6qawvhs Many of these entrepreneurs first arrived in America as international students or through skilled worker programmes such as the H-1B visa. Over the years, Indians have helped build some of Silicon Valley’s most valuable startups. India is followed by Israel with 60 companies, the United Kingdom with 47, China with 41, Canada with 30, Russia with 23, France with 21, Germany with 18, Ukraine with 16, Australia with 14, Pakistan with 10 and Romania with 10. Several of America’s highest-valued startups were founded by immigrants. SpaceX tops the list with a valuation of $1.5 trillion. It is followed by Anthropic at $965 billion, OpenAI at $852 billion, Databricks at $134 billion and Stripe at $106.7 billion. Other highly valued startups include Ramp Financial and Safe Superintelligence, both valued at $32 billion, and Anysphere at $29.3 billion. Nearly one in four US unicorn companies, or 24%, has a founder who first came to America as an international student. Firms founded by former international students create around 1,123 jobs each on average. Together, these companies are worth $3.5 trillion. When publicly traded companies that were once unicorns are included, the value rises to more than $4 trillion. Immigrant-founded companies contribute to job creation, develop new technologies and help advance industries such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology and clean energy. India itself now has more than 100 unicorn startups, many of them founded by entrepreneurs who gained experience overseas before returning or by founders inspired by global markets.