In a striking counterpoint to the ongoing debate about immigration in the United States, a new policy brief from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) reveals that immigrants have founded or co-founded 455 of America's 775 unicorns—private startups valued at over $1 billion—accounting for 59% of all US billion-dollar startups. Approximately two-thirds of America's unicorns were founded by immigrants or their children, and nearly 80% have an immigrant in a key leadership role.
Indian-Origin Founders Dominate
The report highlights that people of Indian origin (PIOs) account for 96 billion-dollar startups, more than any other immigrant group, far ahead of Israel (60), Britain (47), and China (41). This achievement is reflected in their median household income of over $150,000, roughly 80% higher than the typical American family income of $83,730, challenging the narrative that Indians are low-paid workers.
Timing Amid Anti-Immigrant Sentiment
The NFAP study arrives during a period of intense anti-immigrant sentiment, particularly targeting Indians due to the political battle over H-1B visas. Immigrants in technology have been accused of taking jobs, suppressing wages, and monopolizing engineering departments. However, the report paints a positive picture of immigrant enterprise, noting that immigrant-founded unicorns employ an average of 833 workers per company, with a collective value of $5 trillion. Including unicorns that have gone public since 2016, the figure exceeds $5.8 trillion.
Key Sectors and Success Stories
Immigrant-founded unicorns dominate artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, biotechnology, healthcare, defense technology, and enterprise software. Among the highest-valued are OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Stripe, and SpaceX. One notable story is that of Munjal Shah, co-founder and CEO of Hippocratic AI. His father arrived in the US with just $16 to attend graduate school at Berkeley; decades later, Shah's company is valued at $3.5 billion and employs nearly 200 people.
International Students as Founders
Nearly 24% of US unicorns have a founder who first came to America as an international student. For example, Ashutosh Garg arrived from India in 1998, earned a doctorate at the University of Illinois, and co-founded Bloomreach and Eightfold AI, collectively valued at over $4 billion and employing about 1,700 people. He also holds more than 50 patents.
Serial Immigrant Founders
NFAP identified at least 15 immigrants who have founded two or more billion-dollar companies, including six born in India: Mohit Aron, Jyoti Bansal, Arvind Jain, Ashutosh Garg, Ajeet Singh, and Sachin Nayyar. Others include Noubar Afeyan (Lebanon), Al Goldstein (Uzbekistan), Michael Gronager (Denmark), Ignacio Martinez (Spain), Elon Musk (South Africa), Christopher Ré (France), Ion Stoica (Romania), Ilya Sutskever (Canada), and Vlad Tenev (Bulgaria).
Economic Impact
The collective value of immigrant-founded unicorn companies rose from $168 billion to $5.0 trillion between 2016 and 2026, a 2876% increase in a decade. This does not include over $837 billion in market capitalization for unicorns that have gone public since 2016. The study notes that the rise of these companies benefits American retirees and investors through stock and mutual fund holdings.
