SpaceX CRS-13, a commercial resupply service mission to the International Space Station, launched on Dec. 15, 2017. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX. Credit: Space Center Houston
By Kritika Agarwal
Anthropic, Open AI, SpaceX, Stripe, Epic Games, Chobani, and Perplexity have more than one thing in common – in addition to being unicorn startups, or privately held companies valued at $1 billion or more, each has an immigrant founder or cofounder.
In fact, according to a new report by the National Foundation for American Policy, immigrants founded or cofounded 59% (455 of 775) of all current unicorn startups in the United States. Collectively, these startups are worth an immense $5 trillion.
Remarkably, nearly one in four (24%) of these unicorn startups were founded by individuals who first came to the United States as international students. The total value of the 183 unicorn companies founded by international students is between $3.5-$4 trillion; each of these companies, on average, created 1,123 jobs.
As the United States and the world prepare for two of the most valuable unicorns ever (Anthropic and SpaceX) to go public and to reap the benefits of their collective innovation and ingenuity as well as the advances in AI and aerospace technology that they have produced, it is worth remembering that these success stories are powered by immigrants (Jack Clark and Elon Musk, respectively), including international students.
However, a host of immigration policies are making it harder for immigrants and international students to pursue their studies in the United States and, after graduation, remain here and contribute to our workforce. If we continue down this path, we risk pushing this entrepreneurial talent away.
International Students as Entrepreneurs
Unicorn startups are widely seen as a barometer of an economy’s innovation engine as well as its appetite for risk-taking. A steady flow of new unicorns suggests high levels of entrepreneurship, healthy startup ecosystems, and deep capital markets.
As NFAP noted in its report, “U.S. billion-dollar companies with immigrant founders represent America’s cutting-edge companies in AI, medical research, space, defense, healthcare, cybersecurity, enterprise management and other fields.”
Despite not having a dedicated startup visa, the United States has historically offered other pathways for immigrants to live and remain in the country. Many of the international student founders described in the report transitioned from student visas to temporary work visas, such as the H-1B visa category, and eventually to employment-based green cards. Other immigrant founders came to the United States on family-based visas or as refugees.
The United States has been especially successful at attracting some of the best and brightest talent from around the world as international students. “At U.S. universities, international students account for 80% of full-time graduate students in computer and information sciences, 75% in electrical and computer engineering and 62% in mathematics and statistics,” NFAP noted.
It is no wonder that many of these talented students go on to found startups. The NFAP report highlighted several examples:
- A Colombian MBA student from Harvard University, who built a clean‑energy company now valued at $14.6 billion.
- A Russian PhD student at North Carolina State University, now a Georgia Institute of Technology professor, who turned cutting‑edge battery research into a $3.3‑billion advanced materials company that employs 400 people.
- An Indian student who earned a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and went on to cofound not one, but two unicorns focused on e-commerce and AI-based talent recruitment.
- A Czech neuroscience PhD student at the University of Cincinnati who launched a $1.3 billion Massachusetts‑based biotech firm pursuing a new oral treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
These examples illustrate the vital role immigrants play in the creation of new businesses and jobs for Americans. In fact, immigrants are more likely to create than take jobs from native-born workers.
Despite their overwhelming success and outsized contributions to the U.S. economy, our nation’s immigration system is, unfortunately, becoming increasingly inhospitable.
For example, international students now face roadblocks at every step of the way. Before they even step foot in the country, students face lengthy waits for visa interview appointments and undergo time-consuming social media vetting. If current proposed policies go into effect, they will also face caps on the length of their visas and challenges moving from one degree level to another.
If they wish to stay in the United States after graduation, they face an oversubscribed H-1B lottery – recent changes to which will worsen the odds for new graduates – and years-long backlogs for green cards. The administration also recently announced a new policy that would make it harder for students to adjust their status from a student visa to a green card from within the United States. The sum total of these and other immigration policies – combined with steps other nations are taking to lure international talent – is already causing a brain drain from the United States.
As NFAP observed, its “research shows the importance of immigrants in cutting-edge companies and the U.S. economy at a time when U.S. immigration policies have grown more restrictive.” If we want the next wave of transformative unicorn startups, we have to stop making it so difficult for international students and other immigrants to come, stay, and innovate.
Kritika Agarwal is assistant vice president for communications at AAU.