Investment research behemoth Morningstar has unleashed the PitchBook GenAI 20 Index, a new benchmark designed to track the heavyweights of generative AI across both the shadowy depths of private markets and the sunlit shores of public exchanges.
The index aims to capture pure-play generative AI firms that are often invisible in traditional benchmarks, likely because they’re still hoarding VC cash instead of listing on Nasdaq. It taps into PitchBook’s private-market data to keep the coverage continuous as companies make the leap from late-stage VC darlings to fully public entities.
As for the current lineup, Databricks is flexing with a top portfolio weight of 21.4%, followed closely by Anthropic at 19%, OpenAI at 18.9%, and xAI at 18.6%. Together, these top four companies account for nearly 78% of the index’s allocation, essentially cornering the market on generative AI hype. Other holdings include Safe Superintelligence, Anysphere, Mistral AI, and Cohere—because you can’t have an AI index without at least one entity promising a future where robots do all the work.
Sanjay Arya, Head of Innovation at Morningstar Indexes, stated, "Staying at the forefront of innovation in generative AI requires a clear view of opportunities across both public and private markets. We believe this new index helps provide clarity to one of the most important growth themes of the next decade." In other words, they’re trying to map the gold rush before the prospectors even finish digging.
Dimitri Zabelin, Senior Investment Research Analyst for AI and Cybersecurity at PitchBook, noted that generative AI is reshaping how software is built and scaled across industries. Morningstar is also expanding investor tools for public-private market convergence, including new private-company coverage and PitchBook-powered analytics, because tracking the invisible economy requires more than just a spreadsheet and a prayer.
