Written by: Li Xiaoyin
Artificial Intelligence is creating wealth at an unprecedented speed and scale, giving birth to a new batch of billionaires.
According to CB Insights data, there are currently 498 AI "unicorn" companies globally valued over $1 billion, with a total value of $2.7 trillion. Among these, 100 were established in 2023 or later, and over 1,300 companies are valued at more than $100 million.
The core of this wealth feast is the astonishing financing capabilities and continuously soaring valuations of AI startups. Anthropic is negotiating a $50 billion financing round at a $170 billion valuation, nearly doubling its March valuation. Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, completed a $2 billion seed round in July, setting a record for the largest seed round in history.
This wealth creation is not limited to startups, with listed tech giants like Nvidia, Meta, and Microsoft seeing stock price surges, and the robust development of infrastructure companies like data centers, collectively forming the panorama of this AI wealth explosion.
MIT Chief Researcher Andrew McAfee stated:
"Looking back at data from the past 100 years, we have never seen wealth creation of such scale and speed. This is unprecedented."
A Rapid Emergence of New Billionaire Groups
This year's major financing rounds are mass-producing new billionaires. According to a Bloomberg estimate in March, the four largest private AI companies have created at least 15 billionaires with a total net worth of $38 billion. Since then, over a dozen more unicorn companies have been born.
According to media sources citing insiders, Anthropic AI's CEO Dario Amodei and his six co-founders are now likely billionaires. Additionally, Anysphere was valued at $9.9 billion during its June financing, and reportedly received valuation offers of $18-20 billion weeks later, likely making its 25-year-old founder and CEO Michael Truell a billionaire.
Notably, most AI wealth currently exists in the form of "paper wealth" in unlisted companies, making it difficult for founders and shareholders to cash out immediately.
Unlike the internet bubble of the late 1990s when numerous companies rushed to IPO, today's AI startups can maintain a private status for longer periods through continuous funding from venture capital, sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and other tech investors.
Despite narrowed IPO channels, AI newcomers are not without ways to convert paper wealth into liquidity. The rapid development of secondary markets provides opportunities to sell equity, with structured secondary sales or tender offers becoming increasingly common.
The ongoing secondary stock sale negotiations at OpenAI are a typical example, aimed at providing cash to employees. Additionally, many founders can also borrow by pledging equity.
Mergers and acquisitions are another important liquidity event. According to CB Insights, 73 liquidity events have occurred in the AI field since 2023, including mergers, IPOs, reverse mergers, or majority corporate acquisitions.
For example, after Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale AI, its founder Alexandr Wang joined Meta's AI team. Scale AI's co-founder Lucy Guo, who left the company in 2018, used her equity wealth to purchase a mansion in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, for approximately $30 million.
Wealth Creation Highly Concentrated in the Bay Area
This AI wave is geographically highly concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area, reminiscent of the internet era's Silicon Valley.
According to the Silicon Valley Institute of Regional Studies, Silicon Valley companies received over $35 billion in venture capital last year. According to a report by New World Wealth and Henley & Partners, San Francisco now has 82 billionaires, surpassing New York's 66. Over the past decade, the millionaire population in the Bay Area has doubled, while New York's increased by 45%.
The influx of wealth directly boosted the local economy. According to Sotheby's International Real Estate data, the number of houses sold for over $20 million in San Francisco reached a historical high last year. This city, which faced a "doom cycle" a few years ago, is now experiencing significant increases in rent, housing prices, and demand driven by AI.
McAfee stated:
"The geographical concentration of this AI wave is shocking. Those who know how to establish, fund, and develop tech companies are all there. For 25 years, I've heard people say 'this is the end of Silicon Valley' or that somewhere is the 'new Silicon Valley', but Silicon Valley remains Silicon Valley."
Wealth Management Industry Faces New Opportunities and Challenges
As time passes and potential future IPOs occur, the massive wealth created by these private AI companies today will become more liquid, presenting historic opportunities for the wealth management industry.
According to tech advisors, all mainstream private banks, large brokerages, and boutique investment banks are actively reaching out to AI elites, hoping to win their business.
However, serving these newcomers is not easy. Simon Krinsky, Executive Managing Director at Pathstone, points out that most AI wealth remains locked in non-liquid private company equity. He believes that compared to employees at large listed companies like Meta or Google, the proportion of non-liquid wealth for new AI billionaires is much higher.
Krinsky predicts that AI billionaires will follow a similar behavioral pattern to internet newcomers in the 1990s: initially using excess liquidity to invest in similar tech companies known through networks, and eventually turning to professional wealth management services for diversification and professional protection after experiencing high volatility and concentrated risks in the industry.
