Apple or 800 unicorns: What's worth more?

9/7/21 7:00PM

Okay we had another chart lined up, but this headline just grabbed our attention at the last minute.

Data from CB Insights reveals that there are now more than 800 "unicorns" (private startup companies worth more than $1bn) around the world.

Those unicorn companies, which include Stripe, SpaceX, Bytedance (TikTok owner), Epic Games (Fortnite creators), Reddit, Revolut, Discord... and 800 other super promising companies are worth a total of $2.6 trillion at their latest valuations. Remarkably, that is pretty much exactly what the world's most valuable company, Apple, is currently worth (give or take a few billion).

‍Unicorns aren't so rare

‍Startups with three commas in their valuation got their name because unicorns were meant to be rare. That is clearly no longer the case — which means we probably need a new name to describe highly valued startups. Suggestions welcome!

PS: Thanks to Anand and his team at CB Insights for the data, the full list of all 800+ unicorns is here if you're interested.

Rani Molla10h

Amazon expands low-price Haul section to 14 new markets as Amazon Bazaar app

Amazon is expanding its low-cost Amazon Haul experience to a new stand-alone app called Amazon Bazaar.

Amazon launched its Temu and Shein competitor a year ago as a US mobile storefront on its website and has since expanded to about a dozen markets. Consumers could purchase many items for under $10, as long as they were willing to stomach longer delivery times.

Now, thanks to success in those places, the programming is expanding to 14 new markets — Hong Kong, the Philippines, Taiwan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Nigeria — with a new app and name: Amazon Bazaar.

“Both Amazon Haul and Amazon Bazaar deliver the same ultra low-price shopping experience, with different names chosen to better resonate with local language preferences and cultures,” the company said in a press release.

Amazon extends Haul’s ultra low-price shopping experience to 14 new destinations with new Amazon Bazaar app

Big Tech’s most important infrastructure is at the bottom of the sea

While data centers on land are getting all the attention, Big Tech’s vast network of undersea fiber-optic cables carry 99% of all international network traffic.

Jon Keegan10h

Jon Keegan11h

After watching small drones reshape the battlefield in Ukraine, the US Army has announced plans to buy 1 million drones over the next two to three years, according to a report from Reuters.

The military threat of China’s dominance of the quadcopter-style drone industry is also driving the decision. But China’s control over much of the supply chain for drones, including rare earth magnets, sensors, and microcontrollers, will make it much harder for American drone manufacturers to catch up.

Rani Molla

They’re Out There

13h

The wildest stuff Elon Musk said at Tesla’s shareholder meeting

Get ready to text and drive while the Optimus robot cures poverty.