Amy Feldman, Forbes Staff

Of the Next Billion-Dollar Startups list’s 225 alumni, 131, or 58%, became unicorns, including DoorDash, Figma, Anduril, Benchling and Rippling. This year, the list is dominated by artificial intelligence.

Landfills are overflowing with plastic trash. Serial inventor Jonathan Rothberg’s Protein Evolution found a solution: using AI to create enzymes that can recycle old polyester textiles into a material that acts new. Now the three-year-old company needs to prove that it can scale up.

There are more than 50,000 venture-backed startups in the U.S., and only the tiniest fraction will ever reach a $1 billion valuation. Here are the 25 we think most likely to succeed.