China is home to four of the world’s five largest unicorns – start-ups valued at more than USD1 billion – 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 U.S. 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. It said the U.S. and China accounted for a combined 79% of the world’s 586 known unicorns, based on valuations at the end of March. “The U.S. and China continue to dominate, despite representing only 40% of the world’s GDP and a quarter of the world’s population,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of privately-held Hurun Report. “The rest of the world needs to wake up to providing an ecosystem that allows unicorns to flourish.”

The total value of all known unicorns in the world is USD1.9 trillion, equivalent to the GDP of Italy, according to Hurun Research. “These young companies, only nine years old on average, are the world’s most exciting start-ups, leading a new generation of disruptive technology and attracting the world’s top young talent,” Hoogewerf said. The findings bolster China’s efforts to close the gap with the U.S. on fostering many of the world’s most innovative companies, while dealing with the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic as well as Beijing’s complex tech and trade war with Washington. The world’s two largest economies are locked in fierce competition to drive major hi-tech sectors, including artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous driving, robotics and big data.

Alipay operator Ant Group, the digital financial services arm of Alibaba Group Holding, was the top-ranked unicorn in the Hurun list, with a valuation of USD150 billion on the back of its planned initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The world’s second-largest unicorn is TikTok owner ByteDance, with a valuation of USD80 billion. However, U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to put the popular short video app “out of business” in the U.S. if it is not sold by September 15. Third-ranked Didi Chuxing, China’s biggest ride-hailing services provider, had a valuation of USD55 billion. It was followed by Lufax Holding, which runs an online wealth management and peer-to-peer lending platform, with a USD38 billion valuation. Billionaire Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp, better known as SpaceX, took the No 5 spot on the Hurun list with a valuation of USD36 billion.

The U.S. and China this year added 30 and 21 new unicorns. The world’s unicorns are based in only 29 countries around the world, spread across 145 cities. Beijing, with 93 unicorns, led the world’s top five cities in which billion-dollar start-ups have flourished. It was followed by San Francisco, with 68 unicorns; Shanghai, with 47; New York, with 33; and Shenzhen, with 20. As a region, Silicon Valley leads the world with 122 or 21% of the world’s unicorns, according to Hurun Research. There are 39 Chinese unicorns engaged in e-commerce, the top sector. There are 21 in AI, 18 in financial technology, 16 in logistics and 16 in health tech, the South China Morning Post reports.