The Hectocorn Era: 7 Tech Startups Surpassing the $100 Billion Valuation Milestone

The "Unicorn" status is no longer the ultimate trophy in the startup world. Enter the era of the "Hectocorn"—an elite club of private companies valued at $100 billion or more. According to Business Insider, the rapid growth of AI and aerospace industries has pushed valuations to unprecedented levels, with Elon Musk and Sam Altman’s ventures leading the charge.

The Hectocorn Leaders:

1. OpenAI: Currently the world’s most valuable private company at $500 billion, potentially aiming for $750 billion as it defines the GenAI era.

2. SpaceX: Musk’s aerospace giant stands at $400 billion, with secondary sales expected to double that to $800 billion, eye-ing a $1.5 trillion IPO in 2026.

3. Anthropic: The creator of "Claude" reached a $183 billion valuation, with Google and Amazon talks potentially pushing it to $350 billion.

4. ByteDance: The force behind TikTok, valued between $330 billion and $380 billion, remains a global social media powerhouse.

5. Databricks: A leader in data intelligence, its valuation recently soared to $134 billion.

6. Stripe: The fintech pioneer officially entered the club with a valuation of $106.7 billion.

7. xAI: Musk’s newest AI venture jumped to $113 billion (including X platform value), rapidly becoming a major player in the AI race.