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Private Giants

52% of these founders were born outside the country their company calls home.

16 of 31 co-founders of 14 of the most valuable private tech companies were born outside the country where their company is headquartered today.

Companies
14
Founders
31
Birth countries
14
Born abroad
52%

What the numbers show

Together these 14 companies were last valued at $3.07T, without a public listing. 6 of them are valued at $100 billion or more. They are headquartered in 4 countries, and their founders were born in 14.

  1. AnthropicValued at $965B · May 2026 · United States
  2. OpenAIValued at $852B · Mar 2026 · United States
  3. ByteDanceValued at $550B in a share sale · Feb 2026 · China
  4. DatabricksValued at $190B · Aug 2026 · United States
  5. StripeValued at $159B in a share sale · Feb 2026 · United States
  6. RevolutValued at $115B in a share sale · Jul 2026 · United Kingdom
  7. AndurilValued at $90B in a share sale · Oct 2026 · United States
  8. CanvaValued at $42B in a share sale · Aug 2025 · Australia
  9. Scale AIValued at $29B in a strategic investment · Jun 2025 · United States
  10. Epic GamesValued at $22.5B in a strategic investment · Feb 2024 · United States
  11. DeelValued at $17.3B · Oct 2025 · United States
  12. RipplingValued at $16.8B · May 2025 · United States
  13. NotionValued at $11B in a share sale · Jan 2026 · United States
  14. GustoValued at $9.3B in a share sale · Jun 2025 · United States

The ledger

United States12 founders

  1. Daniela Amodei

    Born in San Francisco, United States

    Anthropic · Valued at $965B · May 2026

  2. Dario Amodei

    Born in San Francisco, United States

    Anthropic · Valued at $965B · May 2026

  3. Greg Brockman

    Born in Thompson, United States

    OpenAI · Valued at $852B · Mar 2026

  4. Sam Altman

    Born in Chicago, United States

    OpenAI · Valued at $852B · Mar 2026

  5. Andy Konwinski

    Born in United States

    Databricks · Valued at $190B · Aug 2026

  6. Palmer Luckey

    Born in Long Beach, United States

    Anduril · Valued at $90B in a share sale · Oct 2026

  7. Alexandr Wang

    Born in Los Alamos, United States

    Scale AI · Valued at $29B in a strategic investment · Jun 2025

  8. Lucy Guo

    Born in United States

    Scale AI · Valued at $29B in a strategic investment · Jun 2025

  9. Tim Sweeney

    Born in Potomac, United States

    Epic Games · Valued at $22.5B in a strategic investment · Feb 2024

  10. Parker Conrad

    Born in New York City, United States

    Rippling · Valued at $16.8B · May 2025

  11. Edward Kim

    Born in Upland, United States

    Gusto · Valued at $9.3B in a share sale · Jun 2025

  12. Josh Reeves

    Born in San Francisco, United States

    Gusto · Valued at $9.3B in a share sale · Jun 2025

China3 founders

  1. Zhang Yiming

    Born in Longyan, China

    ByteDance · Valued at $550B in a share sale · Feb 2026

  2. Shuo WangBorn abroad

    Born in Shenyang, China

    Deel · Valued at $17.3B · Oct 2025

  3. Ivan ZhaoBorn abroad

    Born in China

    Notion · Valued at $11B in a share sale · Jan 2026

Australia2 founders

  1. Cliff Obrecht

    Born in Perth, Australia

    Canva · Valued at $42B in a share sale · Aug 2025

  2. Melanie Perkins

    Born in Perth, Australia

    Canva · Valued at $42B in a share sale · Aug 2025

Ireland2 founders

  1. John CollisonBorn abroad

    Born in Limerick, Ireland

    Stripe · Valued at $159B in a share sale · Feb 2026

  2. Patrick CollisonBorn abroad

    Born in Ireland

    Stripe · Valued at $159B in a share sale · Feb 2026

Romania2 founders

  1. Ion StoicaBorn abroad

    Born in Romania

    Databricks · Valued at $190B · Aug 2026

  2. Matei ZahariaBorn abroad

    Born in Romania

    Databricks · Valued at $190B · Aug 2026

Russia2 founders

  1. Ilya SutskeverBorn abroad

    Born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia (then USSR)

    OpenAI · Valued at $852B · Mar 2026

  2. Nik StoronskyBorn abroad

    Born in Dolgoprudny, Russia (then USSR)

    Revolut · Valued at $115B in a share sale · Jul 2026

Canada1 founder

  1. Chris OlahBorn abroad

    Born in Canada

    Anthropic · Valued at $965B · May 2026

France1 founder

  1. Alex BouazizBorn abroad

    Born in Paris, France

    Deel · Valued at $17.3B · Oct 2025

Germany1 founder

  1. Vlad YatsenkoBorn abroad

    Born in Germany (then East Germany)

    Revolut · Valued at $115B in a share sale · Jul 2026

India1 founder

  1. Prasanna SankarBorn abroad

    Born in Chennai, India

    Rippling · Valued at $16.8B · May 2025

Iran1 founder

  1. Ali GhodsiBorn abroad

    Born in Tehran, Iran

    Databricks · Valued at $190B · Aug 2026

Poland1 founder

  1. Wojciech ZarembaBorn abroad

    Born in Kluczbork, Poland

    OpenAI · Valued at $852B · Mar 2026

Slovakia1 founder

  1. Andrej KarpathyBorn abroad

    Born in Bratislava, Slovakia (then Czechoslovakia)

    OpenAI · Valued at $852B · Mar 2026

South Africa1 founder

  1. Elon MuskBorn abroad

    Born in Pretoria, South Africa

    OpenAI · Valued at $852B · Mar 2026

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How this list was made

Which companies. A selection of the most valuable privately held tech companies that were still private in October 2026: not listed on any exchange and not acquired. It is not a complete ranking. Companies that have already gone public, such as SpaceX, appear on Founder Origins instead.

Values. The post-money valuation of each company's latest primary funding round, with its month. Where a share sale to investors or a strategic investment set a newer price, that figure is used and labelled. Private valuations are marks set by a single deal, not market prices, and can move a long way between rounds.

Born abroad. A founder is counted as born abroad when their birth country differs from the country where their company is headquartered today. Birth countries are shown by today's borders.

Sources. Every valuation and every founder's birthplace is cited below. Founders whose birthplace could not be sourced are left out rather than guessed, so some companies show fewer founders than they had. Current as of October 2026.

Company sources (14)
Founder sources (31)

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