This year’s Disruptor 50 list, with Anthropic in first place followed by OpenAI, features companies that are using technology, primarily AI, to challenge existing industries and build new ones.
CEO Dario Amodei said the explosive first-quarter revenue growth was 80x, making Anthropic the fastest-growing company in enterprise software history. In addition to consumer products, Claude Code has revolutionized software development and is championed for its reliability and strong performance for complex tasks. The company is also in talks to raise more capital at a sky-high valuation of $900 billion.
What makes Anthropic number one is not just its growth, but its positioning: its focus on building powerful AI systems that businesses trust. The company’s focus on safety and “constitutional AI,” combined with rapid improvements in model capabilities, has helped it emerge as one of the clear challengers to OpenAI, attracting major partners and customers looking for reliable, enterprise-grade AI.
Anthropic introduced its first product just over three years ago, and “really from the beginning, we said, ‘We prioritize building for business for a variety of reasons,'” recalls co-founder Daniela Amodei.
What has changed over the past year, she says, is the acceleration, not the focus. “I think what we’re seeing, especially in the last three to six months, is that models are getting smarter, products are getting better, and that’s really creating tremendous value for companies,” she said.
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As a sign of how large and powerful the technology ecosystem is, this year’s list has a total valuation of $2.4 trillion, with nearly $2 trillion of that coming from the top five companies on the list, with most of that coming from the top two, Anthropic and OpenAI. The list’s implied valuation has tripled year-over-year. The amount of investment has also increased dramatically, with total funding for 50 companies totaling $337 billion this year, 2.5 times more than last year.
In the 14th edition of Disruptor 50, we explore the trends dominating the market and the growing focus on AI across the economy. 43 of the 50 companies on this year’s list say AI is essential to their business model. Enterprise technology is the largest category, with 20 companies on the list. AI is also being applied to health, with five healthcare companies and three biotech companies on the list. Fintech continues to be an important category, with six companies participating, including Lamp in 5th place, Ripple in 16th place, and Revolut in 29th place.
There are two new categories on this year’s list. Vibe Coding will debut with three companies: No. 37 Cursor, No. 39 Lovable, and No. 42 Replit. These are the startups that have revolutionized the ease of programming for both consumers and businesses. And Karsi and Polymarket are ranked 43rd and 48th respectively, making this the first year prediction markets have been recognized for creating new trading markets and challenging traditional gaming platforms.
Defense technology boom continues
Last year, defense technology giant Anduril topped the list. This year, the value of technology in the defense industry continues to grow. In fourth place, Anduril is already a major modern defense contractor that combines cutting-edge technology and hardware to develop autonomous systems for the military. No.40 Saronic, on the other hand, focuses on maritime defense, partnering with the Navy to provide AI-powered warships and drone vessels. And No. 49 Shield AI focuses on the skies, building autonomous aircraft and drones.
But ties to the defense industry are more widespread across this year’s list. Cyera in 9th place and Abnormal AI in 46th place are focusing on national security and cyber defense, while Applied Intuition, a “physical AI” company in 21st place, is increasing its focus on the military field. The sector is seeing record capital inflows, with venture capital investing in defense worldwide going from $51.2 billion in 2025 to $39.9 billion in 2024 and $27.7 billion in 2023, according to PitchBook.
Military power is also a top priority for the famous AI giant. Anthropic is in the midst of a battle with the government over whether the military should have unrestricted access to its technology, while rival OpenAI is actively pursuing defense partnerships. Last year, the Department of Defense awarded OpenAI a contract worth up to $200 million to develop prototype frontier AI capabilities in both the combat and enterprise realms. This is part of what the Pentagon describes as part of its strategy to build an “AI-first combat force.”
The Department of Defense provides reliable revenue for businesses and validates high-stakes technologies. The fact that so many companies in Silicon Valley are open to cooperation with the military is a departure from the mood in the tech industry not too long ago, when Google employees protested its cooperation with the government on Project Maven. Humanity is a rare and noteworthy outlier. And the fact that its revenue has grown 80 times despite its battle with the government speaks to the power of its technology.
Anthropic also expects a long-term partnership to ultimately outweigh the current disagreements. “Our long history of productive partnership with governments has given us great hope that we have more in common than not,” Daniela Amodei said. “My sense is that there’s a lot of work to be done between Anthropic and all the institutes and all the major technology companies and the government. And I absolutely believe there’s a lot of work out there and a path forward,” she added.
The number of wealthy people in the Bay Area is increasing.
The rise of AI is causing a geographic shift in the Disruptor 50 list. Since the pandemic dispersed entrepreneurs, many have returned to San Francisco and the Bay Area. This year, reflecting the flow of VC funding, the number of Bay Area companies is a record high at 18, an increase of two from last year. The Bay Area accounted for more than three-quarters of all U.S.-based AI funding last year, and half of the 10 largest venture deals went to Bay Area companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, No. 3 Databricks and No. 31 Perplexity.
Next year, companies including the two largest private AI companies are eyeing IPOs. Last year, two companies from the 2025 Disruptor 50 list (Navan and Figma) went public, as did four companies from the previous D50 list. Currently, Goldman Sachs says it has a multi-year high IPO backlog. Investors are keeping an eye on five D50 companies with the potential to set IPO records: Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, Stripe, and SpaceX. One of these companies could become the biggest public offering in history as investors focus on AI, profitability and scale.
Disclosure: CNBC and Kalsi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and CNBC’s minority investment.
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