Evidence from multiple independent valuation rankings shows that Stripe has never become the world’s most valuable private company with only SpaceX ahead of it.

• Around the time of the prediction, Stripe’s March 2021 round valued it at about $95B, while even then ByteDance was significantly larger (about $180B), and articles explicitly noted that Stripe’s valuation was below ByteDance’s internationally. (sofi.com)
• The Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2021 ranked the top private companies as: 1) ByteDance $350B, 2) Ant Group $150B, 3) SpaceX $100B, 4) Stripe $95B—placing Stripe only fourth, behind both ByteDance and Ant as well as SpaceX. (inventiva.co.in)
• In 2024, Hurun again shows Stripe well behind multiple firms: 1) ByteDance $220B, 2) SpaceX $180B, 3) OpenAI $100B, 4) Ant $80B, 5) Shein $65B, 6) Stripe $61B. Stripe is sixth, not second. (mp.hurun.co.uk)
• A 2025 CB Insights–based ranking (via Visual Capitalist) similarly lists: 1) SpaceX $350B, 2) ByteDance $300B, 3) OpenAI $300B, 4) Stripe $70B, with Stripe only fourth in the world. (visualcapitalist.com)
• Recent transaction-based valuations reinforce this gap: ByteDance is being valued in 2025 secondary deals and buybacks at roughly $330–480B, while Stripe’s latest reported valuation is only about $106.7B—far below ByteDance and also below OpenAI’s roughly $300B valuation in recent deal discussions. (reuters.com)

Across 2021–2025, every major dataset and news source shows at least ByteDance—and often Ant Group and/or OpenAI—valued above Stripe. There is no point at which Stripe is the most valuable private company in the world with the sole exception of SpaceX, so the prediction did not come true.