Condia Insider: The startup that knocked OpenAI off the top spot

🍔 Quick Bite: A defence tech startup, Anduril, has taken the top spot on CNBC’s 2025 Disruptor 50 list, pushing OpenAI to second place. The list, dominated by enterprise AI companies, reflects how generative AI has shifted from a feature to the foundation of high-growth startups.

🧠 The Breakdown

Every year, CNBC releases its Disruptor 50 list, spotlighting startups “most likely to shape the future.” Recently, the top spot has gone to either an AI chatbot company or a consumer app. Not this time.

In 2025, the company at number one isn’t a chatbot platform, a fintech app, or a name that rings out on social media. It’s Anduril, a defence tech startup building AI-powered systems for militaries. Anduril dethroned OpenAI, which had held the top spot for the last two years. 

The standout signal from this year’s list isn’t that AI is still hot; that part’s obvious. What matters more is where AI is being applied and who is getting funded to push it forward. The most valuable companies on the list are focused on infrastructure, scale and in Anduril’s case, national priorities.

This is the first time a defence startup has landed at number one. Anduril didn’t just rise to the top quietly; it was second on last year’s list and has made bold moves to reach the top. The company took over a paused augmented reality project from Microsoft, then landed a deal to develop VR equipment for the United States Army. It’s not alone. Three other defence-focused startups: Flock Safety, Shield AI and Saronic, also made the list, together raising nearly $10 billion and holding a combined valuation of more than $45 billion.

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In fact, the top five startups on this year’s list are collectively worth just under $500 billion. That’s more than nearly any full Disruptor 50 lineup from the last twelve years. Altogether, the 2025 companies have raised $127 billion and hold a total implied valuation of $798 billion. 

Enterprise AI takes centre stage

One pattern repeats across the board: generative AI is no longer a category on its own. It’s the foundation. Most of the companies on the list either launched after ChatGPT or quickly retooled to build upon large language models. 

Startups like Abridge and Rad AI are transforming clinical workflows by allowing doctors to dictate and summarise notes. In legal tech, Harvey is giving firms smarter tools for drafting and research. Platforms like Glean, Notion and Databricks are becoming the connective tissue for companies embedding AI into their day-to-day operations.

Canva, ranked number five this year, is another prime example. The design company has made AI central to its product roadmap, investing heavily in partnerships with OpenAI and Anthropic (number four on the list) and acquiring several AI-focused companies over the past year. Its move from a consumer design tool to an enterprise-grade platform mirrors the broader shift happening across the tech industry.

Seventeen of the companies on this year’s list are focused squarely on enterprise technology. That’s more than fintech, health, biotech, transport and food combined.

A Blueprint for Influence

The 2025 Disruptor 50 reads like a map of where money, talent and momentum are heading. Defence tech now leads the pack. AI runs through the core of daily workflows. Valuations are climbing fast, especially for enterprise tools. And the companies behind all of this are not just building. They’re also acquiring, consolidating and moving with the confidence of market leaders.

👉 Here’s the full Disruptor 50 list

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