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2024 Global Unicorn Landscape: AI Reshapes the Ecosystem

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Key trends in valuations, sector shifts, and regional dynamics

BEIJING, April 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — CYZone Research Center Analysis Highlight

Global unicorn growth slows: 110 new unicorns added in 2024 (-84.7% vs. 2021 peak).AI dominates: 30.9% of new unicorns are AI-focused, overtaking enterprise services.Valuation rebound: Average unicorn valuation rises to $2.4B (+26% YoY).Exit dynamics shift: Overseas IPOs dominate Chinese exits (63% via HKEX).

01 Global Unicorn Overview

Market Contraction Continues

Total existing unicorns: 1,867 (up marginally from 1,857 in 2023)

According to CYZone’s 2024 Global Unicorn Companies Insight Report, by the end of 2024, the total existing unicorns had reached 1,867. 2021 was a booming period for new unicorns globally, during which year, 721 new unicorns emerged, which means that nearly 2 new unicorns were born every day on average. Since 2023, the growth rate has slowed down significantly.

New entrants decline, with slight recover in 2024

In 2024, there’s 110 new unicorns, which is a 6.8% YoY increase but a 84.7% decrease compared with the 2021 peak of 721. Data shows a long-term slowdown of new entrants, with an average 60% YoY decline since 2021.

Valuation Recovery

From 2016 to 2023, the average valuation of new unicorns continued to decline, dropping from $6.8B in 2016 to $2.4B in 2023, a decrease of as high as 71.7%. While post-AI investment surge drives valuation rebound, 2024 average valuation (2.4B) increased by 26% compared with 2023 (1.9B). [CYZone Data Lab: Tracking 1,800+ Valuation Trajectories]

Regional Breakdown

US-China Duopoly Intact

Existing unicorns: The world’s existing unicorns are from 54 countries or regions. The US and China currently lead the world in the number of existing unicorns. The US has 838 existing unicorns (44.9% global share), and China has 511 (27.4% global share). The US and China combined 72.3% of global total, which is basically the same as 72.2% in the same period of 2023. In 2024, the new unicorns around the world are distributed in 18 countries globally, US added 61, China added 20, India and the UK added 5 each, France and Singapore added 3 each. [Bestla Cross-Border Investment Analytics: Regional Growth Patterns]

Sector Trends: AI Takes Center Stage

Industry Disruption

AI dominance: Among the new unicorns, 34 out of 110, which is 30.9%, are focused on artificial intelligence. This is a significant increase compared to 2021, when only 4.9% of new unicorns were AI-focused. The United States is leading the way in this trend, with 25 out of 61 new US unicorns, or 41%, being in the AI sector. Enterprise services share drops to 14.5%, down from its 5-year dominance before 2023. [CYZone Sector Intelligence: Al Ecosystem Mapping]

Exit Dynamics: IPO and M&A are the main exit channels

Global Exits: In 2024, a total of 62 unicorn companies exited the unicorn list. Among them, 32 exited through IPOs, accounting for 51.6% of the exits, which is a 3.2% increase year-over-year. 19 companies exited through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), representing 30.6% of the exits, a significant 137.5% increase year-over-year. 8 companies exited due to bankruptcies, which remained flat compared to the previous year. unicorn companies saw their valuations decline to below $1 billion, representing 4.8% of the exits, a decrease of 25% from the previous year. Since 2018, the average annual number of unicorn exits has exceeded 50. In 2021, the number of unicorn exits reached a record high of 159. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries and regions implemented loose monetary policies and introduced a series of economic stimulus measures. In 2021, the global IPO market experienced a boom, with 125 unicorns exiting via IPO, accounting for 78.6% of all exits that year.

02 China Deep Dive

China’s Unicorn Count Dips to 511 Amid Exit-Driven Contraction

In 2024, there were 20 new unicorn companies in China, marking the lowest number in a decade and representing a 51.2% YoY decrease. By the end of 2024, there were 511 existing unicorns in China, showing a year-on-year decrease of 0.2%. This was mainly because the number of unicorn companies exiting the market in 2024 (21) was greater than the number of newly added ones (20).

Regional Concentration: Nearly 80% of the existing unicorns are located in five regions

Existing unicorns: In China, 511 unicorns are distributed across 27 regions. Beijing has 125 unicorn companies, Shanghai has 102, Guangdong has 81, Jiangsu has 54, and Zhejiang has 43. The top five regions collectively host 79.3% of the total unicorn companies.

2024 newcomers in China: In 2024, 20 new unicorns in China are distributed across 11 regions. Shanghai takes the lead with 4 new unicorns. Beijing and Anhui (Hefei) are tied for the second place, adding 3 each. Guangdong (Shenzhen) and Hong Kong added 2 each. Tianjin, Chongqing, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guangxi, and Hainan added 1 each. [Bestla Regional Investment Dashboard: Real-Time Tracking]

China’s Diversified Landscape

In 2024, both the automotive transportation and artificial intelligence industries in China witnessed 4 new unicorns, ranking first in the proportion of all new unicorns. In terms of top sectors, automotive transportation accounts for 20%, AI also accounts for 20%, and smart manufacturing makes up 15%.

China’s IPO Shift

In 2024, there were 19 Chinese unicorn exits. Among these, 12 chose the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), accounting for 63.2% of the total exits. Five listed on NASDAQ, and one on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Additionally, one unicorn went public on China’s domestic A-share market. This marks a significant reversal from the pre-2021 trend, where US IPOs were more common. Since 2021, the HKEX has become the primary exit channel for Chinese unicorns, largely due to tightened A-share IPO policies and the appeal of the Hong Kong market for mainland technology companies. [CYZone Policy Impact Assessment Framework]

The insights above are previews from CYZone’s 2024 Global Unicorn Companies Insight Report. This report leverages CYZone’s Global Unicorn Tracker and Bestla’s Investment Analytics Platform, combining proprietary datasets with AI-driven trend forecasting.

For more detailed content and data analysis, please log in to BESTLA Investment Analysis to obtain the full report.

Download the full report to access:

Proprietary datasets on 1,867 unicorns (including valuation trajectories and exit histories)Sector-specific deep dives: AI, automotive tech, smart manufacturingExclusive case studies of 2024’s breakout companiesInteractive dashboards and quarterly updates

 

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SOURCE cyzone

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AEWIN Empowers AI-Powered Cybersecurity with Rack-Scale Intel-Based AI Servers and Network Appliances

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TAIPEI, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — AEWIN Technologies’ high-performance AI servers and network appliances have been widely deployed by leading cybersecurity providers worldwide to accelerate AI-powered applications. This proven hardware portfolio includes high-availability NVMe servers, general-purpose servers, and scalable network appliances tailored for smart cybersecurity and Edge AI.

AEWIN Technologies participates in the BenQ Group Computex AI NOW exhibition and exhibits smart cybersecurity solutions on the 4th floor of Hall 1, Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center from June 2 to June 5. The booth number is M0104, and the BenQ Group companies will together create a smarter and more sustainable future.

The growing adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI technologies, including LLMs, GenAI, and agentic AI, requires sophisticated network infrastructures capable of handling tremendous amounts of data. For real-world deployments, network security is one of the challenges. Enterprises urgently need smarter and more efficient security solutions to deal with the new threats of cyberattacks.

MIS-5131-2U2 is an NVMe HA Server, Taiwan Excellence Award Winner. Powered by a single Intel Xeon 6700/6500-series processor with P-cores (R1S), it features 24x dual-port NVMe SSDs, high speed NTB communication, and built-in BMC real-time monitoring and automatic responses to heartbeat failures for mission-critical applications. Each node includes three PCIe 5.0 slots for high-throughput NICs, Intel QAT acceleration cards, and GPU/FPGA expansion to support AI workloads.

Powered by dual Intel Xeon 6 processors, BIS-5231 features up to eight PCIe Gen5 expansion slots and twelve storage drive bays with SAS/SATA or NVMe options to meet diverse deployment requirements. Additionally, there are four RJ45 10GbE ports powered by Intel E610 Ethernet controllers to offer high-speed transmission for modern computing demands across Storage, Edge AI, and Networking.

AEWIN also showcases edge servers and network appliances powered by a wide range of Intel processors, from Bartlett Lake-S to Intel Xeon 6 for scalable rack-scale infrastructure supporting high-bandwidth, low-latency, and secure AI infrastructure deployments. They include 2U Edge Computing Servers with the support of dual-width GPU cards and 1U network appliances supporting up to four NICs for advanced infrastructure for AI-powered cybersecurity.

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SOURCE AEWIN Technologies

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Autoliv Strengthens Global Safety Innovation

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VÅRGÅRDA, Sweden, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Autoliv, Inc. (NYSE: ALV) (SSE: ALIVsdb), the worldwide leader in automotive safety systems, is taking a significant step to accelerate the development of life-saving mobility solutions through the Autoliv Innovation Center – a new global platform designed to speed up innovation, collaboration, and development of advanced safety technologies. The Autoliv Innovation Center is inaugurated today in Vårgårda, Sweden, the city where Autoliv’s history began.

The Innovation Center builds on more than 70 years of safety expertise rooted in Sweden, where Autoliv’s operations have played a pivotal role in advancing traffic safety on a global scale. Technologies developed here have been scaled worldwide and are today protecting road users across vehicle segments.

With the Autoliv Innovation Center, Autoliv now takes the next step. By bringing research, system architecture, testing, prototyping and pilot production together in one environment, the center enables faster technical evaluation and shorter development cycles. Advanced digital tools are combined with physical labs and test environments to verify performance in realistic and measurable scenarios.

A key foundation of the Innovation Center is Autoliv’s long-standing triple-helix approach, where industry, academia, and society collaborate to address complex safety challenges. The ambition is to create an arena for global cooperation that drives innovation across mobility and society, with the ultimate goal of Saving More Lives.

“The Autoliv Innovation Center is a strategic development in how we advance safety going forward. By bringing the full innovation chain together, we can move faster from insight to real-world impact and scale solutions globally. It is also the natural evolution of our long-established operations in Vårgårda, building on decades of experience and capability. Sweden has played an important role in advancing traffic safety worldwide, and Vårgårda has been central to these accomplishments. What we are doing today is building on that heritage to accelerate the next generation of global safety innovation,” said Fabien Dumont, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Autoliv.

Over time, the operation in Vårgårda has been central to innovations for road safety including advanced motorcycle safety solutions, the development of Human Body Models (HBM) that improve injury assessment, Load Limit Management (LLM) technologies that enhance restraint performance, Pyrotechnic Safety Switch (PSS) solutions for electrical safety, and safety systems tailored for commercial vehicles.

Autoliv’s safety solutions save approximately 40,000 lives and reduce around 600,000 injuries every year, a tangible demonstration of how innovation makes a real difference for society. With increased investment and an expanded platform for collaboration, the Autoliv Innovation Center is set to further accelerate the development of next-generation safety solutions and help save even more lives in the future.

Inquiries:
Media: media@autoliv.com
Gabriella Etemad, Tel +46 70 612 64 24, Emelie Ericson, Tel +46 70 957 81 35
Investors & Analysts: ir@autoliv.com
Anders Trapp, Tel +46 709 578 171, Henrik Kaar, Tel +46 709 578 114

About Autoliv

Autoliv, Inc. (NYSE: ALV) (NASDAQ STOCKHOLM: ALIV.sdb) is the worldwide leader in automotive safety systems. Through our group companies, we develop, manufacture and market protective systems, such as airbags, seatbelts, and steering wheels for all major automotive manufacturers in the world, as well as mobility safety solutions, such as commercial vehicles and electrical safety solutions. At Autoliv, we challenge and re-define the standards of mobility safety to sustainably deliver leading solutions. In 2025, our products saved approximately 40,000 lives and reduced around 600,000 injuries.

We have operations in 25 countries, and we drive innovation, research, and development at our 13 technical centers. Our 64,000 employees are passionate about our vision of Saving More Lives and quality is at the heart of everything we do. Sales in 2025 amounted to $10.8 billion. For more information go to www.autoliv.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This report contains statements that are not historical facts but rather forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include those that address activities, events or developments that Autoliv, Inc. or its management believes or anticipates may occur in the future. All forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations, various assumptions and data available from third parties. Our expectations and assumptions are expressed in good faith and we believe there is a reasonable basis for them. However, there can be no assurance that such forward-looking statements will materialize or prove to be correct as forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual future results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the future results, performance or achievements expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those set out in the forward-looking statements, including general economic conditions and fluctuations in the global automotive market. For any forward-looking statements contained in this or any other document, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we assume no obligation to update publicly or revise any such statements in light of new information or future events, except as required by law.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/autoliv/r/autoliv-strengthens-global-safety-innovation,c4356044

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SOURCE Autoliv

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Air Liquide announces milestone investment in South Korea to support SK hynix’s advanced AI memory chip project

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PARIS and SEOUL, South Korea, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ —  Air Liquide has signed a major long-term contract with SK hynix, a global leader in memory semiconductors. The Group will bring its pioneering solutions to SK hynix’s massive industrial project dedicated to advanced packaging of HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory), the backbone of the global AI revolution. The investment of nearly 200 million euros is a first success following the acquisition of DIG Airgas earlier this year, significantly strengthening its leadership in both the region and the Electronics industry.

In order to supply SK hynix’s new packaging and testing fab “P&T7”, located in Cheongju, in the Chungcheongbuk province, Air Liquide will build and operate a state-of-the-art nitrogen production unit. Set to begin operations in late 2027, the facility will supply high-purity gases and high-purity compressed air to the fab in charge of the advanced packaging of HBM chips, a key component of AI development.

This contract demonstrates the immediate value creation by integrating South Korea’s leading industrial gas provider DIG Airgas into Air Liquide. By combining the Group’s world-class proprietary technologies for ultra-high purity carrier gases with DIG Airgas’s extensive local footprint and deep-rooted customer relationships, Air Liquide has significantly accelerated its growth trajectory and potential in the region. This strategic synergy uniquely positions the Group to lead the rapid evolution of AI-driven semiconductor manufacturing. With this new project, the Group will also significantly expand its footprint in the Cheongju industrial basin, where its teams already operate several plants supporting SK hynix, reinforcing its long-term competitive edge in the South Korean market.

Ronnie Chalmers, Air Liquide Group Vice President, in charge of supervising Asia-Pacific, stated: “This milestone partnership reflects our strong confidence in the South Korean economy and our long-standing commitment to being a preferred partner in the global semiconductor supply chain. Thanks to the integration of DIG Airgas, which brought us a secured portfolio of nearly 20 projects, our teams now combine local agility and global innovation to accelerate Air Liquide’s growth. We are proud to support the ambitions of our partner SK hynix as they play a leading role in the AI revolution.”

Air Liquide in South Korea

Since 1996, Air Liquide has been a key player in South Korea, serving major industries, the home healthcare sector, and the development of the hydrogen economy. Through strategic investments such as its advanced molybdenum manufacturing plant and state-of-the-art rare gases purification unit, Air Liquide is a long-term partner providing innovative and sustainable solutions to the semiconductor industry. Following the landmark acquisition of DIG Airgas in January 2026, Air Liquide has significantly expanded its local infrastructure and expertise. With a dedicated team of 1,200 employees in South Korea, the Group is ideally positioned to meet the growing demand for high-tech manufacturing, healthcare, clean energy and mobility across the country’s largest industrial basins.

 

CONTACTS

Corporate Communications

media@airliquide.com

Investor Relations

IRTeam@airliquide.com

 

Oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and many other essential small molecules are the invisible pillars of our world and our lives. They have been at the core of the Group’s activities since its creation in 1902.

A world leader in gases, technologies and services for industry and healthcare, Air Liquide acts as the backbone of numerous economic sectors, serving 4.3 million customers and patients across 59 countries with approximately 65,000 employees. With revenues close to 27 billion euros in 2025, Air Liquide combines strong performance and useful growth.

The Group is a leader with a diversified, resilient business model and a strong local footprint across the globe. Through deep engineering expertise and technological innovation, Air Liquide provides scalable solutions that enhance industrial efficiency, accelerate decarbonization, and strengthen value chains. Strategically exposed to growth markets and megatrends, the Group accompanies major industrial and societal transformations to create long term added value and build a sustainable future.

Air Liquide is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange (compartment A) and belongs to the CAC 40, CAC 40 ESG, EURO STOXX 50, FTSE4Good, and Dow Jones Best-in-Class Europe Index indexes.

 

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SOURCE Air Liquide

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