In the AI boom, startups are speedrunning unicorn status

Unicorns are supposed to be rare, but there are now 1,694 of them, according to Crunchbase data.

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• As we were working on the list this year's list of "future unicorns", startups kept dropping off.
• The hottest AI startups are raising new rounds every few months.
• Another reason more companies are breaking out quickly is that AI's accuracy continues to improve.

The AI gold rush has gotten so frenzied that startups are outgrowing the unicorn label in real time.