Thirty-eight new private companies were added to the Crunchbase Unicorn Board during September 2026 after each surpassed the $1 billion valuation threshold in a funding round or investment deal. These additions increased the total value of the listed companies by about $71 billion, in a month when semiconductors, financial services and space technologies led the number of new companies.
Twenty-one companies came from the United States, six from China and three from the United Kingdom, while Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel, Italy, Finland, Germany and Bulgaria each added one company. By the end of September, about 311 companies had joined the list during 2026, putting the year on track to become the second-highest year for unicorn creation, after 2021, when additions exceeded 600 companies.
Chips and Infrastructure Take Center Stage
Major semiconductor rounds included Fab2, which raised $500 million in a Series A round at a $3.7 billion valuation and is developing integrated chip factories and their manufacturing equipment in-house. Celero Communications also raised $275 million in a Series C round, surpassing a valuation of $3 billion, to develop digital signal-processing chips for high-speed optical communications in AI infrastructure.
In China, Evas Intelligence reached a valuation of about $2.2 billion after raising $298 million to develop AI computing chips based on the open RISC-V architecture. SiMa.ai raised $150 million at a $1.45 billion valuation to fund its software platform and upcoming hardware aimed at robots, vehicles and drones.
A similar trend emerged in cloud infrastructure. Gimlet Labs raised about $300 million at a $3 billion valuation to distribute AI inference workloads across different types of chips, while Finland’s Verda surpassed a $1 billion valuation for managing physical data centers and a cloud platform. CDN77 received $570 million in its first external funding round, at a $1.9 billion valuation.
Major Funding for Space Technology and Cybersecurity
In space technology, Germany’s The Exploration Co raised $450 million to develop its reusable Nyx vehicle and Storm engine, while Hubble Network received $200 million at a $1.6 billion valuation to provide direct connectivity between conventional Bluetooth devices and satellites. The United Kingdom’s Open Cosmos and Bulgaria’s EnduroSat also each reached a valuation of $1 billion, with plans to expand satellite manufacturing and space infrastructure.
In cybersecurity, Italy’s Exein raised $270 million at a $1.7 billion valuation to develop AI security models and protect connected devices and autonomous machines. Israel’s Guardio reached a $1.1 billion valuation after a $40 million round, focusing on phishing, fraud, malicious websites and AI-generated fraud.
Notable Increases in the Valuations of Existing Companies
The activity was not limited to new companies. Cognition, which develops AI software-engineering tools, saw its valuation rise to $48 billion from $26 billion four months earlier. Data-center provider Crusoe also reached a valuation of $31 billion, up from $10 billion a year earlier, while French AI lab Mistral’s valuation increased to $24.4 billion from $13.7 billion over the course of a year.
What Does This Mean for the Technology Market?
September data indicates that capital is clearly moving toward the foundational layers supporting AI, from chips and data centers to training data, satellite connectivity and security. However, these figures reflect valuations from private funding rounds and are not necessarily a stable operating or market value. Crunchbase explains that its list does not adjust valuations for internal markdowns made by investors, and that funding amounts are converted into dollars using the prevailing exchange rates when the events occurred. The valuation surge should therefore be read as an indicator of investor appetite, not a final judgment on the companies’ performance.