The Companies Defining The Midas Era
From Alibaba and Meta to OpenAI and SpaceX, these are the startups that generated the greatest venture returns and defined 25 years of the Forbes Midas List.
- Alibaba’s 2014 IPO remains the largest in history, generating over $25 billion in returns for early investors like SoftBank and Silver Lake.
- Meta (Facebook) delivered more than 100x returns for seed investors such as Accel Partners and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
- OpenAI reached a $157 billion valuation in 2026, making it the highest-return startup of the AI era, with Microsoft as the largest corporate backer.