The data center sector is expanding, with new companies emerging to support the demands of AI and cloud computing. This group includes data management firm Cohesity, valued at $7 billion, and photonic chip developer Lightmatter, with a $4.4 billion valuation.
Several companies have recently joined the list, including Celestial AI and WEKA, which both became unicorns in 2024. The industry also shows global reach, with companies like China's Tenglong Holding Group securing $3.7 billion in funding.
Below is the full list of 10 Data Center unicorn startups at this time.
Top 10 Most Valuable Data Center Unicorns
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Get the Sheet for $50Cohesity develops an AI-powered platform for data security and management, consolidating tasks like backups, recovery, and analytics. Their hyper-converged system helps organizations protect data against cyber threats while simplifying how it's managed across data centers, the edge, and the cloud.
| Valuation | $7B (Joined June 2018) |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California, United States |
| Year Founded | 2013 |
| Founders | Mohit Aron |
| Funding Amount | $955M |
| Company Size | Major Organization (1,001-5,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Series H |
| Top Investors | Battery Ventures, Madrona, Accel, NVIDIA, Sequoia Capital |
Lightmatter builds photonic processors that use light instead of electricity to run massive AI and data center computations. They are creating a new class of computer chip designed to accelerate machine learning tasks while using significantly less energy.
| Valuation | $4.4B (Joined December 2023) |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California, United States |
| Year Founded | 2017 |
| Founders | Darius Bunandar, Nicholas Harris, Thomas Graham |
| Funding Amount | $822M |
| Company Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Series D |
| Top Investors | Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Spark Capital, Fidelity, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Matrix |
Illumio provides Zero Trust Segmentation to stop breaches from spreading across hybrid clouds and data centers. Their platform helps organizations visualize risk and isolate attacks, preventing minor intrusions from becoming major disasters.
| Valuation | $3B (Joined April 2015) |
| Headquarters | Sunnyvale, California, United States |
| Year Founded | 2013 |
| Founders | Alan Stokol, Andrew Rubin, PJ Kirner |
| Funding Amount | $557.5M |
| Company Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Series F |
| Top Investors | General Catalyst, Accel, Franklin Templeton, Andreessen Horowitz, BlackRock |
Celestial AI builds an optical interconnect technology platform to accelerate AI and data center computing solutions. Their core product, the Photonic Fabric, uses light to transfer data and addresses major performance limitations in traditional systems.
| Valuation | $3B (Joined March 2024) |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, California, United States |
| Year Founded | 2020 |
| Founders | David Lazovsky, Michelle Tomasko, Preet Virk |
| Funding Amount | $593.9M |
| Company Size | Mid-Size Team (51-250) |
| Last Funding Status | Series C |
| Top Investors | Temasek Holdings, Engine Ventures, Tiger Global Management, US Innovative Technology Fund, BlackRock |
WEKA provides a software-based data platform built to handle the intense demands of AI and next-generation workloads. Their cloud-native system gives organizations a high-performance, unified way to manage data whether it's on-premise or in the cloud.
| Valuation | $2B (Joined May 2024) |
| Headquarters | Campbell, California, United States |
| Year Founded | 2013 |
| Founders | Liran Zvibel, Maor BenDayan, Omri Palmon |
| Funding Amount | $415.1M |
| Company Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Series E |
| Top Investors | Norwest, Celesta Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Hitachi Ventures, NVIDIA |
Jaguar Microsystems creates specialized semiconductor products and solutions for cloud infrastructure. They focus on building high-performance data processing units to meet the demands of modern data centers.
| Valuation | $1.34B (Joined June 2022) |
| Headquarters | Shenzhen, Guangdong, China |
| Year Founded | 2020 |
| Founders | Sunny Siu |
| Funding Amount | — |
| Company Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Series B |
| Top Investors | Tencent, Shenzhen Capital Group, Huaye Tiancheng Capital, Temasek Holdings, QBN Capital |
MinIO offers high-performance, S3-compatible object storage for multi-cloud architectures. Their software is entirely open-source and cloud-native, providing a consistent storage layer for any infrastructure.
| Valuation | $1B (Joined January 2022) |
| Headquarters | Redwood City, California, United States |
| Year Founded | 2014 |
| Founders | Anand Babu Periasamy, Frederick Kautz, Garima Kapoor, Harshavardhana |
| Funding Amount | $126.3M |
| Company Size | Lean Team (11-50) |
| Last Funding Status | Series B |
| Top Investors | Intel Capital, Index Ventures, SoftBank Vision Fund, Nexus Venture Partners, General Catalyst |
Firmus Technologies builds specialized AI Factories using an advanced liquid-cooling system to create energy-optimized data centers. Their infrastructure is engineered to deliver maximum AI token output for the lowest possible cost.
| Valuation | $1B |
| Headquarters | Saint Leonards, Tasmania, Australia |
| Year Founded | 2019 |
| Founders | Oliver Curtis, Tim Rosenfield |
| Funding Amount | A$330M |
| Company Size | Mid-Size Team (51-250) |
| Last Funding Status | Private Equity |
| Top Investors | The Pratt family, Ellerston Capital, Regal Funds Management, NVIDIA, Archibald Capital |
Bitfury Group develops a wide range of hardware and software solutions for the Bitcoin and blockchain industry. Their expertise spans from creating high-performance mining chips and data centers to offering blockchain analytics and security services.
| Valuation | $1B |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands |
| Year Founded | 2011 |
| Founders | Valery Nebesny, Valery Vavilov |
| Funding Amount | $170M |
| Company Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Venture Round |
| Top Investors | iTech Capital, Macquarie Capital, Galaxy Digital, Blockchain Capital, Korelya Capital |
Tenglong Holding Group provides in-depth customization services for globally distributed data centers (IDC). They specialize in designing and operating infrastructure tailored to the unique data storage and cloud computing requirements of their clients.
| Valuation | $1B |
| Headquarters | Beijing, Beijing, China |
| Year Founded | 2015 |
| Founders | Shaolong Ren |
| Funding Amount | $3.7B |
| Company Size | Large Team (251-1,000) |
| Last Funding Status | Series A |
| Top Investors | Nanshan Capital, Huaneng Invesco WLR Investment Consulting, Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, Haitong Hengxin International Leasing |
