The co-founder of Kazakhstan's first "AI unicorn" may make the Forbes list

Alexander Mashrabov, co-founder of Higgsfield, a Kazakhstani AI startup that uses artificial intelligence to create videos, is likely to make it onto Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires. His stake in the company—which was valued at $5.4 billion following the latest round of investment—may amount to 20%, the publication reports, citing experts it surveyed.

Higgsfield specializes in video and image creation and editing. In May 2026, the startup presented the 95-minute sci-fi action film *Hell Grind* in Cannes, which, according to the company, was created entirely using artificial intelligence.

The company was founded in 2023 by Mashrobov and Erzat Dulat, one of the pioneers of machine learning in Kazakhstan. Mashrabov is known for having headed the generative AI department at Snap—after the American company acquired the AI Factory video editing platform in 2020, of which Mashrabov was a co-founder.

Less than a year ago, Higgsfield became Kazakhstan’s first “unicorn”—a startup valued at over $1 billion. And recently, it raised $400 million at a valuation of $5.4 billion. Participants in the funding round included DST Global, Goldman Sachs, Intel, and other investors. The Higgsfield platform now has more than 30 million users in 238 countries, with the U.S. remaining its key market. By August 2026, the company’s annual recurring revenue had reached $700 million, up from $20 million a year ago.

Mashrobov’s stake in Higgsfield exceeds 20%, according to a Forbes source close to the deal. The entrepreneur himself did not respond to a request for comment. A 20% stake in the startup, based on investors’ valuation, is worth $1.08 billion.

According to a study by the American fintech platform Carta, after a Series B funding round (the second major round of venture capital funding), the founding team retains an average of about 23% of the business. However, experts surveyed by Forbes agree that Mashrabov and Dulat’s stake remained higher than usual compared to similar deals. Given this growth trajectory and competition among investors to get in on the startup, the founders likely gave up significantly less than the “average” 20% per round, says Anna Gishko, a partner at H3 Lab. “The company grew very quickly and was already raising money at high valuations, which means it could dilute its ownership less than a typical startup,” agrees venture capitalist Alexey Milevsky. In his opinion, Mashrabov’s stake now stands at 25–30%. Sergey Mosunov, co-founder of The Garage Syndicate, estimates that the Higgsfield founders’ combined net worth is $3 billion, with Mashrabov holding $2 billion of that.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor