(Yicai) June 25 -- TikTok operator ByteDance, fintech giant Ant Group and cross-border e-commerce platform Shein secured spots in the top 10 in the latest Global Unicorn Index released by the Hurun Research Institute, which featured 381 Chinese companies.

ByteDance saw its valuation surge 60 percent from the previous year to CNY3.3 trillion (USD485 billion), making the Beijing-based firm the world’s third-most valuable unicorn, behind only US artificial intelligence firms Anthropic and OpenAI, the developers of the Claude large language model and the ChatGPT chatbot. The two US companies were valued at CNY6.6 trillion and CNY5.8 trillion, respectively, according to the ranking released today.

Hangzhou-based Ant ranked sixth on the list, with a valuation of CNY592 billion (USD87 billion), unchanged from last year, while Guangzhou-based Shein placed ninth, with its valuation rising 34 percent to CNY456 billion.

This is the eighth edition of the Global Unicorn Index published by the Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute, which covers privately held firms founded after 2000 with valuations exceeding USD1 billion. This year, a total of 1,603 companies made the list, an increase of 80 from last year, while their combined value increased 43 percent to CNY54 trillion (USD7.9 trillion).

The number of Chinese unicorns on the list rose by 38 from a year earlier to 381, second only to the United States, which had 806. Among them, 80 were newly minted unicorns, while 29 graduated from the list through initial public offerings or acquisitions and another 12 dropped off due to declining valuations.

China produced a new unicorn every five days on average during this year’s survey period, compared with one every 10 days last year. At the current pace of growth, the number of unicorns in China is expected to exceed 500 within five years, said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman of the Hurun Research Institute.

AI startup DeepSeek made its debut on the list this year, ranking 12th with a valuation of CNY340 billion (USD50 billion). The Hangzhou-based company is the highest-ranked among the world’s 308 newly added unicorns.

The number of newly added unicorns reached a four-year high this year. Although still below the peak of nearly 700 recorded in 2021, the quality of new entrants has significantly improved, Hoogewerf said. Many newcomers in the AI, robotics, and new energy sectors achieved multi-billion-dollar valuations shortly after their establishment.

Growth in the total value of unicorns this year was entirely driven by the AI boom, Hoogewerf added. Furthermore, the top 10 companies accounted for nearly 40 percent of the entire list's value, an unprecedented concentration of value that reflects investors' belief that the AI sector will produce a small number of exceptionally valuable companies.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor