AI startups top DeFiLlama’s pre-IPO list as private valuations double
DeFiLlama data shows that many pre-IPO tech firms have witnessed their private valuations more than double in the past year, with AI companies now occupying the top two places on DeFiLlama’s board.
The ranking sends a strong message to the worldwide AI industry. The largest sources of private capital are gravitating toward frontier model developers and the infrastructure that supports them.
DeFiLlama is known for monitoring decentralized finance protocols and is now tracking 182 pre-IPO companies. Anthropic and OpenAI top the list, and other AI-involved companies make some of the biggest one-year valuation gains.
AI names crowd the top of the board
Anthropic leads the ranking with an estimated $1.38 trillion valuation after a 716.89% one-year jump. OpenAI follows at about $900.29 billion, up 140.08%.
Further down, DeepSeek is valued at $50 billion, Cognition at $35.2 billion after a 325.41% rise, alongside Moonshot AI, Mistral AI and ElevenLabs. Data-infrastructure company ClickHouse has climbed nearly 3,000% over the year.
The overall top ten rankings show an even broader mix of companies. ByteDance, Stripe, Waymo, Revolut, Anduril, and Shein are also among the highest-ranked companies. Nonetheless, the presence of frontier AI labs at the top of the rankings indicates the extent to which funding has well and truly pivoted towards the sector.
Why $100 billion stopped being rare
The pace at which companies achieve mega-cap status is even more impressive.
On August 19, Forge, a private-market company, reported that the $100 billion private valuation was inconceivable until ByteDance set the bar exactly in December 2020. Now, however, the benchmark is becoming less exceptional.
According to Forge’s statistics, xAI hit the $100 billion market in just 2.3 years, whereas Anthropic needed 4.5 years. OpenAI took 8.3 years, while Waymo and SpaceX had to wait for 17.1 and 19.6 years, respectively. As far as Stripe is concerned, it needed 11.9 years.
“AI-native businesses reach meaningful revenue, user adoption and strategic relevance faster than the previous generations of tech companies.”— Forge, Private Market Update, August 19, 2026
Forge also points to a larger pool of investors. Sovereign wealth funds, private equity companies, corporate investors, and crossover funds are now competing with traditional venture capital firms to get access, resulting in higher valuations early on.
Capital is chasing the category
The valuation surge mirrors a wider spending boom.
Goldman Sachs Research projected on August 7 that global AI-related investment will reach about $1 trillion in 2026, including $581 billion in the United States. Economist Joseph Briggs said cumulative AI investment could reach $1.8 trillion by year-end.
Stanford’s 2026 AI Index found that global private AI investment rose 127.5% in 2025 to $344.7 billion. Generative AI alone attracted $170.9 billion. Gartner expects spending on AI models and platforms to reach $64.25 billion this year, up 63.4% from 2025.
The public-market wobble private valuations shrugged off
Public AI stocks have not had the same smooth ride.
Nasdaq Private Market said on July 24 that hyperscaler stocks fell 12% from a May 29 peak, while AI chip names dropped 13% from their June 22 peak.
Private markets proved more resilient. Its tracker of the 50 largest private companies was up 62% year to date, compared with 8% for the S&P 500. From around June 1, the private-market tracker still gained 10%.
“The market is increasingly differentiating between winners with durable competitive advantages and losers whose valuations were driven primarily by enthusiasm.” – Nasdaq Private Market, July 24, 2026
What do the eventual IPOs mean
The essential issue is what will happen when these companies finally make an initial public offering.
According to Forge, IPOs are moving from events that create value to events that serve as points of liquidity, where more of the gain takes place prior to going public.
Currently, DeFiLlama estimates Anthropic’s valuation at around $1.38 trillion and that of OpenAI at $900.29 billion, with their recent funding valuations being $965 billion and $852 billion, respectively.
According to Cryptopolitan, investment bankers believe that the first major AI firm to become public will set a landmark valuation for future companies. As Anthropic and OpenAI have topped DeFiLlama’s list of the highest-valued private companies, their upcoming IPO will have a notable impact on the way investors view other private and public AI enterprises.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
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