It's fair to say that AI is all over the 12th annual CNBC Disruptor 50 list.Â
Roughly two-thirds of the 50 companies making the Disruptor 50 list describe artificial intelligence as "critical" to their businesses. And it starts at the very top: for the first time ever, a company repeats as the list 's No. 1: OpenAI.
AI's remaking of the market extends much further. Thirteen of the 2024 Disruptors call themselves "generative AI companies," including five of the top 10 on this year's list, a group that in all raised at least $5.5 billion from investors in the past year.
Companies in industries ranging from cybersecurity to agriculture are also defining AI as mission critical. And in an important shift from the past Silicon Valley-led disruptive innovation era, the "better, faster, cheaper" mantra funded almost wholly by VCs is on the way out.
AI requires massive capital investment, inevitably leading to close partnership with the incumbent giants rather than just disruptive competition.
In all, the 2024 Disruptors have raised $70 billion at a total implied valuation of $436 billion.
| 1 | OpenAI | The first-ever back-to-back top disruptor |
| 2 | Anduril Industries | A future fighting force |
| 3 | Stripe | $1 trillion in online transactions |
| 4 | Brex | Well spent |
| 5 | Databricks | Building, bit by bit |
| 6 | Canva | Design star |
| 7 | Anthropic | An Amazon-backed OpenAI threat |
| 8 | ElevateBio | A basecamp for drug discovery |
| 9 | Wiz | A hyper cyber grower |
| 10 | Exotec | What's up in the warehouse |
| 11 | Octopus Energy | A highly intelligent grid |
| 12 | Scale AI | AI's personal trainer |
| 13 | Notion | Creative collaboration |
| 14 | Flutterwave | Fintech for fast-growing populations |
| 15 | Relativity Space | Rocket stars |
| 16 | Monzo | One of Britain's biggest banks |
| 17 | Transcarent | A friend with benefits |
| 18 | Arctic Wolf | Cold cyber comfort |
| 19 | Einride | Trucking's next stop |
| 20 | Thrive Market | An online grocer to check out |
| 21 | Zipline | Delivering on drones' promise |
| 22 | Chime | Banking on more banking distrust |
| 23 | GrubMarket | Digital transformation for America's food supply chain |
| 24 | Carbon Robotics | The laser-based weed killer |
| 25 | Generate:Biomedicines | Designer AI drugs |
| 26 | Figma | Adobe's ex, moving on, creating new relationships |
| 27 | Kapital | The bank that wants small business |
| 28 | Deel | On a payroll |
| 29 | Alto Pharmacy | Big online pharma |
| 30 | Cohere | The gen AI inside more company firewalls |
| 31 | Zum | Making the yellow school bus green |
| 32 | Ramp | The corporate expense hawk |
| 33 | Dedrone | Smart air security |
| 34 | Lead Bank | An extreme bank makeover |
| 35 | Phononic | Heating up, and cooling down |
| 36 | Solugen | A sugar fix for the climate |
| 37 | Tala | Developing credit in developing markets |
| 38 | Navan | The corporate traveler |
| 39 | Beewise | Busy with bee collapse |
| 40 | AlphaSense | Wall Street's AI search engine |
| 41 | Trust & Will | Where there's a will, there's need for better estate planning |
| 42 | Gecko Robotics | Critical mission robots |
| 43 | Glean | A Google and a ChatGPT for the enterprise |
| 44 | Discord | Its game is still on |
| 45 | Spring Health | Completely mental |
| 46 | Lineage | The largest link in the global food supply chain |
| 47 | Abnormal Security | Looking for phishy business |
| 48 | Watershed | The operating system for corporate climate commitments |
| 49 | Maven Clinic | Whole-person healthcare for women and families. |
| 50 | Cityblock | A high stakes bet on lowering the cost of Medicaid |
