The Forbes 2025 AI 50 list dropped this week, showcasing the world’s most promising private companies in artificial intelligence. It’s a snapshot of where the smartest money and boldest bets are being made, and by extension, a glimpse at those entrusted to shape the future of what is deemed the most consequential technology of our time.
But behind the billions in funding and breakthrough technology, one stark reality stands out: this future remains overwhelmingly designed by men. The AI 50 celebrates 50 companies, but only seven have a female founder. And in a striking indictment, five of those seven women navigated not just the tech world, but also international borders, having immigrated to the United States.
Let that sink in. In a sector overflowing with billions in capital yet still alarmingly devoid of women, what does this tell us? These founders aren’t just rare, they are unicorns among unicorns. Statistical miracles in a data-obsessed industry that somehow misses its own glaring blind spot.
AI Top 50: The Women Who Beat the Odds
Consider Lin Qiao, co-founder and CEO of Fireworks AI, an app development platform that raised a $52 million funding round in less than two years at a valuation of $552 million. Originally from China, Qiao is part of a new generation of technical founders pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with generative AI.
Fei-Fei Li, also known as “the Godmother of AI,” is a Stanford professor, former Chief Scientist at Google Cloud, and one of the most influential figures in the AI race. Born in China and raised in the USA, Li has spent her career advocating for more ethical, human-centered AI and diversifying the pool of those primed to build it. Her co-founding of World Labs marks a pivotal moment: one of the most respected minds in AI is now building her own path, and investors are following along. Despite being in stealth, her new company has already raised $292 million.
Then there’s Mira Murati, Albanian-born and the woman behind ChatGPT, who briefly took the helm of OpenAI during its boardroom coup in 2023. She stepped down as CTO months later, leaving many wondering why and what’s next. Now we know. Her new stealth startup, Thinking Machine Labs, reportedly aims to raise $1 billion at a ~$9 billion valuation (pre-product launch). It promises to build AI that doesn’t just generate answers, but helps humans make sense of them.
And then there’s May Habib, a Lebanese-born entrepreneur who co-founded Writer. This enterprise AI firm has raised over $300 million to deliver safe, on-brand, generative AI solutions for businesses. Her leadership also extends to advocacy for responsible AI, emphasizing the role of technology in creating a more inclusive and equitable future for all.
Alongside them are founders like Chenlin Meng and Demi Guo, both of Chinese origin. The duo behind Pika is a red-hot video generation startup poised to transform digital content creation.
These women convinced U.S. investors to back them in a market where all-female founding teams receive less than 2% of venture capital funding. They hired top technical talent in one of the tightest labor markets in history. They forged partnerships, gained traction, and scaled technologies capable of reimagining billion-dollar industries. They did this within an industry that has long favored narrow backgrounds, credentials, and familiar faces. Beating the odds not just as women in tech, but as immigrants.
Beyond the Myth: The Untapped Leadership of Immigrant Women in AI
While the tech industry loves to romanticize the immigrant founder, aka the scrappy outsider who comes to Silicon Valley and builds a unicorn—the star protagonists are rarely female. Yet these founders persist and often thrive, not despite these barriers but perhaps because of them. There’s a certain resilience innate to those who can translate between worlds, languages, industries, and cultures. This is a skillset arguably ideal for leadership in an era where AI is reshaping how we work, live and learn and where trust in who builds it matters more than ever before.
A $50 Billion Missed Opportunity: The Economic Cost of AI’s Gender Gap
The numbers tell a stark story. According to PitchBook , funding for female-founded AI startups actually declined in 2023—even as the sector itself attracted unprecedented interest and investment.
That five of the seven women featured on the AI 50 are immigrants isn’t evidence of systemic change. Rather, it underscores just how exceptional these exceptions truly are. Silicon Valley continues to follow a predictable playbook. We know the steep curve women face. Women must be extraordinary simply to earn consideration. Success still flows disproportionately to founders who fit a particular mold. We know how this story goes, white, male, degrees from prestigious universities, résumés featuring top tech firms, and systemically embedded connections to established networks.
This pattern, while arguably not intentionally exclusionary, nonetheless reinforces a system where diverse voices remain unheard. With AI now dominating venture capital (funding to AI-related companies has soared to over $100 billion, representing one-third of all VC dollars in 2024), this persistent gender gap transcends being merely a failure of equity. It represents a staggering loss of innovative potential at the precipice of technology’s most transformative frontier.
The Future of AI: Why Diverse Builders Matter
In simple science, AI systems reflect the people building them. When those people look sound and talk like each other, the technology naturally inherits a narrow perspective. That is how algorithmic bias becomes structural bias and how innovation becomes exclusion.
Founders like Habib, Qiao, Murati, and Li bring something different. Not just their gender or ethnicity but also an ability to think about risk, responsibility, and accountability in a new way. They’re not just focused on making AI smarter; they’re building systems that represent a broader spectrum of lived experience. That’s not a feel-good addition. It’s a business advantage.
Beyond Borders and Bias: The Expanding Landscape of AI Innovation
It’s also worth noting that many of the male founders on the list are immigrants too. This should give us pause. At a time when immigration is increasingly politicized, and visa pathways for skilled workers face uncertainty, the AI boom is being quietly built by people whose future right to be here is anything but guaranteed. This is a country that has long benefited from global talent, a point that cannot be overlooked as policy debates around immigration rage on.
If there’s one lesson to take from this year’s AI 50 list, it’s that talent doesn’t follow borders. Opportunity still does. Despite these barriers, these women built their own labs, trained their own models, and let their results speak for themselves. They aren’t just exceptional technologists; they’re living proof that brilliance exists far beyond the traditional Silicon Valley archetype. A reminder that AI’s most promising future might come from voices we’ve barely begun to hear.
These women represent more than personal success stories. They represent what the future of AI could look like if access matched ambition.
