When Norway's AI Unicorns Take Flight
Among the leading companies highlighted in our Norwegian AI report are several promising AI firms, often described as unicorns or unicorns in the making. The unicorn label captures more than just valuation.
It signals companies that break out of the ordinary growth path by combining digital platforms, global reach, and innovative business models.
What most unicorns, and high-growth firms in general, have in common is that their success is enabled by digital technologies. Their growth rests not on physical assets but on intangibles such as data, software, algorithms, and organizational innovations. These allow them to operate with near-zero marginal costs, harness network effects, and expand rapidly across markets. This is particularly true for AI firms, where scalable algorithms and data-driven learning systems make it possible to improve products without proportional increases in cost. Research on scale-ups shows that this combination of high gross margins, rapid sales growth relative to inputs, and strong investment in intangibles is precisely what sets them apart from other high-growth firms.
The promise of these AI firms demonstrates that despite long-standing critiques of Norway's ability to produce unicorns, it is possible to build them here. AI-enabled unicorns in particular show how Norwegian founders, talent, and ecosystems can compete at the global frontier. When such high-growth firms remain embedded locally, their impact extends far beyond their own balance sheets. They anchor entrepreneurial ecosystems by attracting capital, creating high-value jobs, drawing in international talent, and generating knowledge spillovers that strengthen both startups and established firms. In this way, AI unicorns function as catalysts, multiplying the innovative capacity of the broader ecosystem and positioning entire industries for transformation.
But this promise is also fragile. Two of Norway's most prominent AI firms, Cognite, which develops an industrial data platform that helps energy and manufacturing companies unlock value from their data, and 1X Technologies, which advances robotics and AI to build humanoid robots for automation, have already decided to move their headquarters abroad. So, these unicorns have grown wings and turned into Pegasi.
Their global expansion is a testament to the quality of Norwegian innovation, yet their relocation exposes a critical weakness in the ecosystem. Headquarters matter: they determine where strategic decisions are made, where global leadership sits, where advanced R&D takes place, and where capital is anchored. When these elements move, so too does much of the long-term value creation, strategic influence, and ties to the local community. Instead of reinforcing networks, attracting capital, and cultivating talent at home, these benefits risk being captured elsewhere. What remains in Norway is the story of where the journey began, not the dividends of what the company becomes.
If Norway is to build lasting strength in AI, we must secure an environment that not only gives rise to ambitious firms but also convinces them to stay. AI is already driving the restructuring of existing industries and the creation of entirely new ones. Understanding why leading companies move their headquarters abroad, and addressing those barriers, is essential to shaping the framework conditions that will allow our AI landscape to mature and thrive. As our AI report shows, there is a wealth of promising technology being developed in Norway. The priority now is to ensure that this innovation continues to flourish here so that the benefits of tomorrow's AI breakthroughs are realized at home. If we want to avoid becoming a launchpad for others, we need to ensure that Norway is not just where unicorns are born, but also where they choose to stay.