For U.S. initial public offerings, 2026 is starting out as a slow burn, with 24 IPOs filed so far, down 11.1% from the same period in 2025, according to Renaissance Capital. Additionally, just nine IPOs have been priced in the U.S. market in 2026, down 47.1% from last year. Proceeds raised so far total $2.6 billion, a 30.6% decline from 2025.
Take the Renaissance IPO Index (market-cap-weighted basket of newly public companies), the underlying U.S. index for the Renaissance IPO exchange-traded fund (ticker: IPO). As of Feb. 2, the ETF was down 2.9% year to date, while the S&P 500 was up 1.9%.
So far, investors who’d hoped the IPO market would take off like a shot this year are likely disappointed.
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However, some analysts believe the market will eventually pick back up again from its more rapid clip at the end of last year. In fact, there could be some explosive action from big names on deck, launching the “year of the mega-IPO,” as stated by the New York Times in January.
“Based on an analysis of Crunchbase data, venture-backed IPO debuts picked up in 2025,” says Gene Teare, research lead at Crunchbase, a predictive intelligence solution for private markets. “We expect that momentum to continue in 2026, despite the dip in recently IPO-linked technology stocks.”
Crunchbase’s Unicorn Board, which tracks billion-dollar private companies, stands at a record $7.8 trillion. That’s up $2 trillion from 2024, the company reports. After 2021, last year was the hottest year for funding to current unicorns, and the U.S. has the most unicorns historically by a wide margin.
Still, some market watchers see the IPO market as feeling split right now.
“Larger deals are still getting done, suggesting there isn’t a capital issue,” says Zaia Lawandow, founder of The IR Studio and former head of investor relations at Lionsgate and Redbox. “But on the small- and micro-cap side, activity has basically stalled.”
Others see a more robust IPO market rounding into form this year.
“I expect the increase in IPO activity during 2025 to continue into 2026, with over 100 pending deals totaling more than $11 billion currently outstanding,” said Kyre Lahtinen, associate teaching professor at the School of Business at Wake Forest University. “The success of the IPO market this year is likely to hinge on AI companies‘ ability to scale and gain traction from investors. Although the deal volume is there, this year is likely to be known for mega-IPOs from firms like SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI.”
In a seemingly unbalanced but potentially lucrative market, which IPOs stand the highest right now, and why? These eight emerging issues appear likely to make the cut in 2026:
| UPCOMING IPO | IPO VALUATION ESTIMATE |
| SpaceX | $1.5 trillion |
| Databricks | $134 billion |
| OpenAI | $830 billion to $1 trillion |
| Anthropic | $350 billion to $500 billion |
| Shein | $30 billion to $50 billion |
| Canva | $42 billion |
| Forgent Power Solutions Inc. (FPS) | $8.8 billion |
| Stripe | $106.7 billion |
SpaceX
An announced SpaceX public listing could be the largest IPO of all time, with an estimated $1.5 trillion valuation in 2026, an eye-popping record figure.
SpaceX solves a big problem for space travel: It was too expensive. “SpaceX’s reusable rockets slashed the cost of going to space by 95%,” said Stephen McBride, chief analyst at RiskHedge, in a recent research note. “SpaceX equals the new NASA. Elon Musk’s rocket scientists have launched more mass into orbit since its first flight in 2006 than the rest of the U.S. combined in its entire history.”
Starlink, SpaceX’s subsidiary, is a core piece of the puzzle. Starlink is a satellite internet “constellation,” providing high-speed internet to underserved and remote areas across the globe. Starlink now provides high-speed, low-latency internet access to over 9 million customers, according to a company post on X.
If SpaceX completes its public offering in 2026, it could surpass the $29.4 billion raised in 2020 by Saudi Aramco (2223.SR), creating the largest single-company public market infusion in history. However, the listing also introduces new pressures, as public shareholders will have greater scrutiny over the capital-intensive burn rates of the Starship program and the complexities of Elon Musk’s multi-company governance.
Databricks
Databricks appears set to go public in 2026, planning to raise around $4 billion at an estimated valuation of $134 billion. Databricks had a $4.8 billion run-rate for revenue in its third quarter, up 55% year over year.
Databricks is a fast-growing data management company that helps companies organize, clean and analyze massive amounts of data in one place. Its hybrid approach yielded Databricks’ unified “Data Lakehouse” platform, using AI agents.
The company’s net revenue retention, above 140%, seems to be a strong indicator that customers are spending increasingly more on Databricks products.
OpenAI and Anthropic
Representing a battle for AI supremacy, both OpenAI and Anthropic could make their mark on the 2026 IPO market. They’re the two dominant forces in generative AI: OpenAI kickstarted the AI revolution through the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, and Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.5 has gained traction due to its advantage in competitive reasoning and handling of large codebases.
OpenAI reportedly is eyeing a 2026 listing that could value the firm between $830 billion and $1 trillion. Some see a successful IPO as critical to the company’s ability to fund “Project Stargate,” a massive data center expansion project essential for training next-generation models like GPT-6. As of January, the Stargate roadmap now includes a phased investment of $500 billion over four years, a joint venture with tech giants including Microsoft Corp. (MSFT).
Focused on “constitutional AI” and safety-first systems, Anthropic is reportedly preparing for a 2026 debut with a valuation target of $350 billion to $500 billion.
Michael Martin, vice president of marketing strategy at TradingBlock, is closely monitoring a potential Anthropic IPO in 2026. “What drives my interest here is Claude Opus 4.5. This model goes beyond simple code assistance and moves toward agent-style execution. You describe what you want built, and Claude can plan, write and iterate on the code with minimal intervention.”
Tasks that once took developers weeks or even years can now be done in days, Martin says. “That efficiency is hard to ignore,” he says. “It may not replace developers today, but it meaningfully multiplies them. For experienced coders, it accelerates output. For non-coders, it lowers the barrier to building real software.”
“If Anthropic has made this much progress in just five years, it’s fair to ask where we’ll be in another five,” Martin adds.
Shein
This Singapore-based business-to-consumer fashion e-commerce platform has handled its proposed IPO in fits and starts since it declared its intention to go public in November 2023. After nearly doubling its net income in 2025, Shein may plan for a 2026 open trading date.
Analysts expect Shein to take its IPO to the Far East, most likely Hong Kong, after plans for a New York City and London new issue fizzled out. Muddying the waters are France’s Shein online commerce and issues tied to overseas retail tax waivers. What it has going in its favor are robust pricing powers and a proven ability to curb costs.
“Shein is one of the most interesting IPOs expected this year,” says Alex Tsepaev, chief strategy officer of B2Prime Group. “Its cheap clothing and goods model is growing very rapidly and already competing with Amazon and Temu.”
While Shein is having some difficulties launching in the U.S., a Hong Kong IPO should be valued at $30 billion to $50 billion, according to recent reports.
Canva
The buzz surrounding Canva, Australia’s largest private technology company, is that the design-software firm will list on the Nasdaq in 2026, but company leadership is quiet on the issue. Late in 2025, investors such as Blackbird Ventures stated that Canva is “ready” for a late-2026 IPO, while co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Cliff Obrecht has said an IPO is “probably imminent in the next couple of years.”
Canva certainly passes muster on the IPO attraction front, with a creative business model that lets novice users design templates for books, social media, blogs and videocasts without having to bring on a professional graphic designer. The company boasts 260 million monthly active users and 500,000 customer teams, including teams for corporate brands such as American Airlines, Intel and Salesforce.
Canva has been an incredibly fast-growing software company, challenging Adobe Inc. (ADBE) and Figma Inc. (FIG) with its free and accessible slide templates and poster designs. Canva has eight years of profitability, 260 million users, $3.3 billion in annualized recurring revenue and 100% year-over-year enterprise growth going for it as well.
Obrecht seems to be on board with a Nasdaq listing in late 2026. “As a late-stage private company with the likes of all the big cats that are playing in public markets … our obligations and expectations to beat and raise are very much the same,” he said previously. “It does get me thinking — what’s the real difference? When the public markets were valuing companies lower than the private markets, it was like, whatever, but now at a lot higher markers it’s become more appealing.”
Forgent Power Solutions Inc. (FPS)
In early January, Forgent Power Solutions, an electrical equipment manufacturer, announced its intention to go public in 2026 under the ticker symbol FPS. The stock price will range from $25 to $29 per share, with a valuation up to $8.8 billion.
The company’s financials align with a good-looking IPO. The company has reported robust financial performance of late, with revenues growing 56% to $753.2 million from 2024 to 2025. As of late 2025, Forgent held over $1 billion in backlog orders, a 44% increase from the same period in 2024.
“Forgent Power Solutions’ IPO stands out among the IPOs currently pending,” Lahtinen says. “They expect to raise a significant amount of capital at over $1.6 billion; however, the real key to why this stands out is that it may set the temperature for how the market will receive AI-related IPOs throughout the year.”
Lahtinen cites Forgent Power Solutions’ expertise in building electrical equipment critical to data center construction and deployment. “If their IPO is well received, then it may indicate the market has the appetite for AI-related investments and that the market is less worried about an AI bubble than is frequently speculated, given current valuations,” Lahtinen adds.
Stripe
Stripe remains a highly anticipated fintech IPO, although co-founder John Collison stated in January 2026 that the company is “in no rush” to go public, as it continues to use tender offers to provide liquidity to employees.
Stripe is a financial services and payments platform that helps businesses grow their revenue via customized processing models. As of early 2026, it has established a lead in “agentic commerce,” also known as AI-to-AI payments.
Stripe’s valuation was most recently pegged at nearly $107 billion in September 2025, and more recent estimates put that around $120 billion or higher. Some market experts say Stripe can afford to bide its time, and probably will. “Stripe is now profitable. But it’s opted for secondary liquidity rather than an IPO,” says Dan Buckley, chief analyst at DayTrading.com.
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8 Upcoming IPOs in 2026 originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 02/03/26: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
