The Takeaway
The Morningstar PitchBook Global Unicorn Index rose 12.6% in the first quarter, outperforming public markets by more than 15 percentage points. Gains were driven primarily by a small group of mega-cap AI leaders rather than by broad-based appreciation.
Global unicorn deal value reached $236.2 billion in 2025, but deal count remains 57% below 2021 peak levels. More than half of unicorns have not raised capital in over two years, highlighting increasingly selective capital access concentrated in a smaller group of scaled companies.
AI companies represent 41% of unicorns by count and 50% by value, with the Morningstar PitchBook GenAI 20 Index delivering 179.5% annualized returns driven by episodic repricing and "TAM drafting" from anchor companies such as OpenAI.
Secondary markets trading volume for late-stage companies grew 65% over the last 12 months, with secondary prices increasingly trading at premiums to stale primary-round marks across much of the Unicorn 20 universe.
Private markets, as measured by the Morningstar PitchBook Global Unicorn Index, entered 2026 with strong momentum, continuing to outpace public equities, but the headline performance masks a more uneven reality. Value creation has become increasingly concentrated in a small group of large, AI-related companies, while much of the broader unicorn universe has remained relatively stable. Capital is still flowing, but increasingly toward fewer companies through larger funding rounds. At the same time, secondary markets are playing a growing role in price discovery for scaled private companies, and a potential wave of mega-IPOs is further blurring the boundary between public and private markets.
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