The Forbes Artificial Intelligence 50 List of 2025 highlights the most promising privately-held AI-driven businesses worldwide. This year's list features startups automating workflows in engineering, healthcare, legal, and sales, alongside established model builders such as OpenAI and Anthropic, which have collectively raised $81 billion in venture funding. Forbes received 1,860 submissions for the list. Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, founded in July 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, has experienced rapid growth through its large language model DeepSeek-R1, launched in January 2025. DeepSeek-R1 quickly surpassed OpenAI's ChatGPT on Apple's app store and reached 30 million daily active users. In March, DeepSeek recorded 194 million monthly active users, according to QuestMobile. Liang Wenfeng, with a net worth of 33 billion yuan ($44.9 billion), was named to Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2025 for his role in challenging US tech dominance. DeepSeek is not on the AI 50 list due to opaque funding and business practices. The adoption of agentic AI—autonomous systems capable of independently solving complex problems and orchestrating multi-step workflows—is accelerating in 2025. Enterprises are deploying AI agents to move beyond task automation toward intelligent orchestration, enabling faster decision-making and end-to-end process execution. Sema4.ai's Psy AI engine and Emerson Electric Co. report that enterprise AI agents have improved accuracy and turnaround times, with Emerson achieving a 70-80% auto hit rate in payment remittance processes. Agentic AI differs from generative AI by focusing on decision-making and goal achievement with minimal human intervention. These agents can access external tools, plan and prioritize tasks, and collaborate within multi-agent networks. Forecasts suggest that 25% of enterprises using generative AI will deploy AI agents by the end of 2025. The expansion of agentic AI raises challenges, including data security, legal compliance, and the need for specialized AI talent. Copyright litigation affects several leading AI companies, including Suno, Cohere, Perplexity, and Elevenlabs. Despite these issues, the global AI landscape remains highly competitive, with Chinese firms like DeepSeek achieving rapid growth and influence.