Illustration by Grabriel Grabriel Garble for Forbes
Thursday, April 10, 2025 – Forbes today announced its seventh annual AI 50 list, highlighting the most promising startups driving advancements across industries. As AI continues to dominate global discussions, this year’s list celebrates innovative companies that are building impactful products and applications that use AI to solve real-world challenges and generate business growth.
“Even amid industry-wide challenges such as data shortages and legal battles, the AI industry continues to make significant strides and attract massive levels of funding,” said Rashi Shrivastava, Forbes reporter. “The seventh annual AI 50 list was among the most competitive with several new AI players introduced to the industry, a testament to both the rapidly changing AI landscape and the longevity of the companies on this year’s list.”
Notable highlights from this year’s list include:
- Six female CEOs made this year’s list including May Habib, CEO of Writer; Lin Qiao, Co-Founder and CEO of Fireworks AI; Eleanor Lightbody, CEO of Luminance; Demi Guo, Co-founder & CEO of Pika; Mira Murati, CEO of Thinking Machine Labs and Fei-Fei Li Co-Founder and CEO of World Labs.
- Newcomers include $2.5 billion-valued Anysphere (better known as Cursor), a three year-old AI startup that helps engineers write and edit code; the $1 billion-valued AI language tutor app Speak; and Massachusetts-based $1 billion-valued OpenEvidence, which is building an AI-powered search platform that summarizes medical information for doctors.
- Model builders like OpenAI and Anthropic remain the largest companies on the list, raising a combined $42 billion in venture funding, approximately two-thirds of the total $142.45 billion that companies on this year’s AI 50 list have raised. Meanwhile, there’s new competition from Elon Musk’s xAI ($12.1 billion in funding) and former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s stealthy startup Thinking Machine Labs.
The Forbes AI 50 List was compiled in partnership with Sequoia Capital and Meritech Capital.
Methodology
This year was among the most competitive for the AI 50 list. Forbes received some 1,860 submissions. Applicants do not pay a fee to be considered and are judged for their business promise, technical talent and use of AI through a quantitative algorithm and qualitative judging panels. Companies are encouraged to share data on diversity, and our list aims to promote a more equitable startup ecosystem.
For the full package of coverage, including a detailed explanation of the list methodology, videos and analyses on trends in AI, visit:
Media contacts:
Christina Magrini, cmagrini@forbes.com
Feryal Nawaz, fnawaz@forbes.com
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