China is home to four of the world’s five largest unicorns, led by Alibaba’s Ant Group

Ant Group, the digital financial services arm of Alibaba, had a US$150bil valuation to top the rankings of this year’s Hurun Global Unicorn Index. The total value of all known unicorns in the world is US$1.9tril, equivalent to the GDP of Italy. — SCMP

China is home to four of the world’s five largest unicorns – startups valued at more than US$1bil (RM4.23bil) – as the country recorded 227 such companies at the end of March, despite its protracted tech and trade war with the United States.

That total was behind the US tally of 233 unicorns in the same period, according to this year’s edition of the Hurun Global Unicorn Index released by Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute on Tuesday. It said the US and China accounted for a combined 79% of the world’s 586 known unicorns, based on valuations at the end of March.