Minting decacorns at a record pace
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Illustration: Natalie Peeples/Axios
We're in the golden age of decacorns.
- The average time from launch to decacorn has been cut in nearly half, and some decacorns arrive literally overnight.
By the numbers: It took companies globally an average of 5.5 years to hit decacorn status in 2025, data from PitchBook shows.
- That's down from 9.4 years in 2020, and it's even faster than the 8-year average to hit unicorn status that year.
Zoom in: With three months to go, 42 decacorns have been born globally in 2026 — cementing an historic record before expected rounds from companies like 2021-founded Modal's $15 billion valuation close.
- The previous record was 34 in 2021, which surpassed 2020's 14.
- Seventeen of the 20 fastest decacorns did that in 2025 or 2026. All of which took about three years or fewer to get there.
Case in point: Discovery Loop was reportedly seeking a $10 billion valuation when it was founded in August by former Google chief scientist Jeff Dean, setting it up to become the fastest ever company to hit $10 billion.
- That target was ramped up to $50 billion last month, per Business Insider.
Reality check: Decacorn status doesn't guarantee long-term success, see proto-decacorn Webvan for proof of same.
Zoom out: The rising tide hasn't excluded companies launched in the pre-AI age.
- The average age of a new decacorn in 2026 ticked upward to 7.1, thanks to some 16 companies that were born over eight years ago.
- That includes players like Cerebras (2015), Shield AI (2015), SambaNova (2017), FluidStack (2017), Airwallex (2015), NinjaOne (2013), and Whoop (2012).
Between the lines: The lopsided VC market is a driving force as investors pile into mega-seed deals backing a highly sought-after founder, or later-stage mega-rounds like Anthropic where investors are piling extraordinary amounts of their fund into one bet.
Yes, but: There are cracks in the IPO landscape, with delayed and cancelled offering making November a key month to watch.
- Weaknesses there could mean a darker ending for this current golden era.
The bottom line: AI is leading to faster-than-ever ramp ups in revenue. It also leading to rapid bid ups in valuation — sometimes without the former.
