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 . Blitzy’s platform reverse engineers existing code bases to build a knowledge graph and thereby enable autonomous development of software projects over days or weeks that can re-engineer and test complicated systems and deal with technical debt. The 2-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion and is said to be used by dozens of global 2,000 companies. OpenRouter , a routing technology for applications to select from 400-plus models, raised a $113 million Series B led by Alphabet’s CapitalG . Investors in the round included a host of corporate venture firms including NVentures , ServiceNow Ventures , MongoDB Ventures , SnowflakeVentures and Databricks Ventures . The 3-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.3 billion. Robotics Hark raised a $700 million Series A led by Parkway Venture Capital . The company plans to build personalized robotics developing its own models, training and hardware. The 1-year-old San Jose, California-based company was valued at $6 billion. It was founded by CEO Brett Adcock , founder of humanoid robotics unicorn Figure . Guangdong, China-based Tianji , a dual arm robotics developer, raised a $147 million Series B led by Hillhouse Capital and Meituan Strategic Investment . It said its new funding will be used for R&D, production and a global sales network. The 10-year-old company was valued at $1.5 billion. Shanghai-based Agilink has raised four funding rounds since it was spun out of Agibot in January, and reached a valuation of $1 billion. Agilink is focused on dexterous hand technology. The funding will be used for model development, data and hardware with the spinout able to license to the broader robotics market. Botshare , a robot leasing and rental platform, raised a Series A funding. The less than 1-year-old Pudong, China-based company was valued at $1 billion. It is looking to expand from event rentals to warehousing, logistics and park operations. Healthcare MiRus , a treatment provider for cardiovascular and orthopedic disease, raised a $1.5 billion corporate round led by Boston Scientific . Boston Scientific has an option to acquire its heart valve technology. The 10-year-old Georgia, U.S.-based company was valued at $4.4 billion. Retro Biosciences , a longevity biotech company, seeking to extend human life by a decade, with therapeutics targeting age related disease raised the initial close of funding round led by 4P Capital . The 5-year-old Redwood City, California-based company was valued at a pre-money valuation of $1.8 billion. Vi Labs , launched a suite of AI agents for healthcare built from its clinical data, raised $146 million in equity and secondary funding led by Revelstoke Capital Partners . The 15-year-old New York-based company was valued at $1.6 billion. Quantum computing Vancouver-based Photonic , a quantum computing company that combines silicon-based qubits with native photonic interconnects, raised a $70 million extension funding led by Luxembourg-based Planet First Partners . Photonic raised $130 million in January. The 9-year-old company was valued at $2 billion. Quebec-based Nord Quantique , which says it addresses quantum error correction in each qubit, raised a $30 million funding. The company has raised a mix of government grants and venture capital. The 6-year-old company was valued at $1.4 billion. Aerospace Cowboy Space , a builder of rockets to deploy data centers in space, raised a $305 million Series B led by Index Ventures . The 2-year-old San Carlos, California-based company, formerly called Aetherflux, was valued at $2 billion. The company plans to launch its first satellite later this year. Its technology entails using the upper stage of the rocket as a low-earth orbit satellite that uses solar energy to create 1-megawatt data centers in space. Hyderabad, India-based Skyroot Aerospace , a rocket company that delivers satellites into space, raised a $60 million funding led by Singapore-based GIC and Menlo Park, California-based Sherpalo Ventures . Skyroot is planning the maiden voyage of Vikram-1 in June. The 7-year-old company was valued at $1.2 billion. Financial services Corgi Insurance , an AI insurance provider for startups, raised a $160 million Series B led by TCV . The 2-year-old San Francisco-based company was valued at $1.3 billion and plans to go after the trucking industry next. Intelligent wealth management platform Farther raised a $150 million Series D led by General