[Ads-l] Name for start-up company with a large valuation: unicorn, decacorn, centicorn, hectocorn, UniTera, DecaTera

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Back in 2015 Ben Zimmer wrote about billion dollar start-up companies
called unicorns in the Wall Street Journal.

Title: How 'Unicorns' Became Silicon Valley Companies
Sub-title: The term unicorn used to refer to magical beasts. How did
it come to describe a herd of young Silicon Valley companies?
Author: Ben Zimmer
Date: March 20, 2015
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-unicorns-became-silicon-valley-companies-1426861606

Now, commentators are trying to determine the appropriate name for
trillion dollar start-up companies.

Website: nextbigfuture.com
Article: What Should We Call OpenAI, XAI and Anthropic When They Are
Trillion $ Startups?
Author: Brian Wang
Date: September 20, 2025
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/09/what-should-we-call-openai-xai-and-anthropic-when-they-are-trillion-startups.html

[Begin excerpt]
OpenAI, XAI and Anthropic and a wave of AI companies could become
trillion dollar valuation startups in 2026. OpenAI raised at $300
billion and the next round could be $500 billion. SpaceX is at $400
billion and could become a trillion dollar company or more in 2026. I
suggest choosing between two terms, Kilocorns for 1000 Billion and
UniTera for Single Trillions. If someone was writing about 2000
Unicorn startups and 200 Decacorns then they could continue to
Kilocorns. However, we will crossover $10 trillion in 2026 and 2027.
We should then use UniTera and DecaTera to differentiate between
single digit trillion and over ten trillion. If AI causes the
explosion in valuation to continue then we will need an adaptable
naming convention.
[End excerpt]

Wikipedia: Unicorn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn_(finance)

[Begin excerpt]
Unicorns with over $10 billion in valuation have been designated as
"decacorn" companies.[9] For private companies valued over $100
billion, the terms "centicorn" and "hectocorn" have been used.[10]
[End excerpt]

[Begin excerpt of Google AI Overview generated Sep 20, 2025]
A startup valued at a trillion dollars or more does not have a
specific single name, but is sometimes referred to as a kilocorn or a
"trillion-dollar company". While terms like "unicorn" (over $1
billion) and "decacorn" (over $10 billion) are established, "kilocorn"
is a less formal, emerging term.

Terms for Valuations
Unicorn: A private startup valued at over $1 billion.
Decacorn: A private startup valued at over $10 billion.
Hectocorn: A private startup valued at over $100 billion.
Kilocorn: An emerging term for a startup valued at over $1 trillion.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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