Business & Finance

Comparing Why Indian Entrepreneurs Build Abroad and Chinese Founders Return Home

By Anay Singh

A recent analysis of global unicorn data highlights a notable difference between Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs. According to Hurun's Global Unicorn Index 2026, Indians have co-founded 217 unicorns worldwide—companies valued at more than $1 billion—with 142 of them based in the United States. By comparison, Chinese entrepreneurs co-founded nearly 400 unicorns, but fewer than 50 of these were located outside China.

Financial opportunity is often cited as the reason for this gap, and there is evidence to support this. The author, who previously worked at Mahindra Group and Tesla, shared that his first job in India after college paid about $6,000 annually. After moving to a unicorn startup a few years later, his salary rose to around $30,000. Today, working in the Bay Area, his compensation is roughly 8 to 10 times higher than that.

However, financial incentives alone do not fully explain the pattern, since international students from many countries have similar access to opportunities in the US. To explore this further, the author consulted a Harvard Business School classmate who returned to China after graduation, uncovering several additional factors.

One is national pride. Chinese education and media often emphasize the