Immigrants have started more than half (319 of 582, or 55%) of America’s startup companies valued at $1 billion or more, according to a new study from the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), a nonpartisan research organization.

nearly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. billion-dollar companies (unicorns) were founded or cofounded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Almost 80% of America’s unicorn companies (privately-held, billion-dollar companies) have an immigrant founder or an immigrant in a key leadership role, such as CEO or vice president of engineering.

As of October 1, 2018, there were 91 unicorn companies in the U.S., and 50 of them (or 55%) had an immigrant founder compared to 582 unicorn companies in the U.S and 319 (or 55%) with an immigrant founder as of May 2022.

The analysis shows that 58% of immigrant-founded billion-dollar companies had only an immigrant or multiple immigrant founders (i.e., no native-born founders). Overall, 86% of the immigrant-founded billion-dollar companies had solely an immigrant founder or immigrant founders or a majority of founders who were immigrants or an even number of immigrant and native-born founders; only 14% had a majority of native-born founders.

The collective value of the over 300 immigrant-founded U.S. companies is $1.2 trillion, which is more than the value of all the companies listed on the main stock markets of many countries, including Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Portugal, Ireland, Russia and Mexico.

The research finds that the privately held U.S. billion-dollar startup companies with immigrant founders have created an average of 859 jobs per company.

There are 143 U.S. billion-dollar companies with a founder who attended a U.S. university as an international student. One-quarter (143 of 582, or 25%) of billion-dollar startup companies in the U.S. have a founder who first came to America as an international student

The U.S. billion-dollar companies with at least one immigrant founder with the highest valuations are SpaceX ($125 billion), Stripe ($95 billion), Instacart ($39 billion), Databricks ($38 billion), Epic Games ($31.5 billion), Miro ($17.5 billion) and Discord ($15 billion).

More than 25 of the U.S. billion-dollar startups with immigrant founders produce cutting- edge products, platforms or services involving artificial intelligence (AI).

India, with 66 companies, is the leading country of origin for the immigrant founders of U.S. billion-dollar companies. Immigrants from Israel founded the second-most billion-dollar companies with 54, followed by the United Kingdom (27), Canada (22), China (21), France (18), Germany (15), Russia (11), Ukraine (10), Iran (8), Australia (7), Romania (6), Italy (6), Poland (6), Nigeria (6), South Korea (5), New Zealand (5), Pakistan (5) Argentina (5), Brazil (5), Spain (4), Portugal (4), Denmark (4) and several other countries.

Immigrants are “almost twice as likely” as native-born Americans to become entrepreneurs, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. More open immigration policies will produce more startup companies in America