The initial public offering market is buzzing in mid-2026, with an A-list of brand names set to roll out the IPO red carpet.
This is happening at a time when IPOs are already having a powerhouse year. According to Renaissance Capital, $34.2 billion has already been raised through May 31, up 163.9% from the same period a year ago. At 113, the total number of IPOs is also rising in 2026, representing a 10.5% uptick from a year ago.
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But make no mistake, it’s the all-star lineup of potentially record-breaking IPOs that has tongues wagging on Wall Street.
“The IPO market is the healthiest and most exciting it’s been in some time,” said Chris Kampitsis, a credentialed investment advisory specialist at MML Investors Services LLC. “Companies in the technology and artificial intelligence space in particular are seeing the stars aligned for a public listing with a fervor and excitement we haven’t seen since the dot-com era. These are also the largest IPOs from a valuation perspective, perhaps in history.”
Kampitsis noted that Arm Holdings PLC (ticker: ARM), Porsche Automobil Holding SE (OTC: POAHF), Airbnb Inc. (ABNB), Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER), Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA), Facebook (now Meta Platforms Inc. (META)) and Twitter Inc. (now privately held X) were among the most prominent IPOs of the last 15 years. “None of those approached the current valuations being circled about for companies like SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI,” Kampitsis says.
On the downside, industry critics view these IPOs as possible “cash-outs” rather than purely “liquidity injections.”
“It’s clear that many IPOs are heading to the public markets later in their growth cycle than historical norms,” Kampitsis states. “That’s likely due to the role of private equity investing in earlier stages,” a phenomenon that wasn’t quite as common until the last 10 to 15 years.
Should these companies deliver on their promises, there is no doubt early IPO investors may experience lucrative returns over time, but investors should resist the feeling that they may miss the boat. “IPO fever can often be cured by macroeconomic events and classic market cycles,” Kampitsis states. “In other words, stocks go up, but they also go down. It may make sense to wait and see how a company’s stock will behave after launch and then look for a reasonable entry point in the weeks and months to come.”
Quantinuum (QNT) Shines in IPO
Broomfield, Colorado-based Quantinuum Inc. (QNT) shone in one of the most closely watched public market debuts of 2026 on June 4, raising approximately $1.68 billion in an upsized Nasdaq IPO priced at $60 per share, well above its already-increased target range. On IPO day, the stock fluctuated between $64 and $68 per share, but Wall Street experts advise patience with all quantum stocks coming out of the IPO pipeline in 2026 and 2027.
“Quantinuum sits on a longer clock,” notes Ilya Margolin, a strategic consultant and an IPO and capital markets analyst. “Quantum may become strategically important, but the market will need patience and tolerance for technical risk.”
The initial public offering valued the company at roughly $15.6 billion, a dramatic jump from the $10 billion valuation the quantum computing firm received in a private funding round in 2025. History is on QNT’s side, too, as it’s the first major pure-play quantum computing company to reach public markets through a traditional IPO rather than a special-purpose acquisition company merger.
Aside from Quantinuum, which stocks stand tallest in a bull market for IPOs? These seven potential supernovas top the list:
| UPCOMING IPO | IPO VALUATION ESTIMATE |
| SpaceX | $1.75 trillion |
| OpenAI | $852 billion |
| Anthropic | $965 billion |
| Anduril Industries | $61 billion |
| Databricks | $134 billion |
| Payward Inc. (Kraken) | $20 billion |
| Stripe | $159 billion |
SpaceX
First up is Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is preparing for what could become the largest initial public offering in history, targeting a valuation of approximately $1.75 trillion and a capital raise of roughly $75 billion. The company, founded in 2002 to curb the costs of space launches and pave the way to a self-sustaining colony on Mars, has set an IPO price of $135 per share and is expected to begin trading on Nasdaq in mid-June. If successful, the offering would eclipse Saudi Aramco’s record 2019 IPO and instantly place SpaceX among the world’s most valuable public companies.
“SpaceX is the most structurally interesting IPO I’ve ever seen,” said Alex Debelov, founder at AI Money Map, an artificial intelligence investment analysis platform. “Every Nasdaq index fund becomes a forced buyer within about 15 days of listing because of the inclusion rules, and given the size they’ll likely overweight it.”
With SpaceX, the fundamental story centers on Starlink as a connectivity monopoly and how much of the AI/data center buildout SpaceX is positioning itself around. “The only real risk is just paying too much on day one,” says Debelov.
Oh, and the company makes rockets, too. Going forward, SpaceX investors are betting on a unique combination of businesses, including launch services, the fast-growing Starlink satellite network and the AI assets acquired through its merger with xAI. While revenue climbed more than 30% last year, critics argue the valuation could be a steep premium relative to current earnings. The IPO is also notable for Musk’s effort to expand retail investor participation while maintaining tight founder control through a special voting structure that would make Musk the world’s first trillionaire.
One last interesting tidbit on a SpaceX IPO: The company has reportedly reserved up to 30% of its IPO shares for retail investors, and big investment firms are responding accordingly. Fidelity, for example, has lowered its minimum account balance for the SpaceX IPO from as high as $500,000 to $2,000, opening the door to regular investors.
OpenAI
OpenAI is yet another technology heavyweight laying the groundwork for what could become Silicon Valley’s most consequential IPO since Facebook.
The company, valued at approximately $852 billion in its March funding round, is reportedly working with investment banks on confidential IPO preparations that could support a public valuation approaching $1 trillion. While no public filing has been announced yet, bankers and investors increasingly expect an offering in late 2026 or early 2027. Polymarket traders are taking the longer view on an OpenAI IPO, with 73% of platform bettors wagering on a December 2026 IPO timeline. Only 3% of Polymarket players believe the IPO will kick off by July 31, 2026.
Market mavens say OpenAI is the most-watched IPO name that hasn’t moved yet, so the investment angle is intriguing. “Anthropic appears to be moving faster toward a public offering, and if it gets there first, it will shape how the market prices the AI category broadly,” said Carly Mostar, founder and narrative strategist at Tandem, a business intelligence and analysis company. “OpenAI could eventually become a standard in its own right, but we see more risk there than in Anthropic at this stage. That said, this race is far from over.” The company, valued at $852 billion, is brushing off any financial concerns ahead of a new issue with speculation heating up. Sarah Friar, the company’s chief financial officer, seems bullish about OpenAI’s IPO prospects, recently noting that the company is seeing intense interest from retail investors and that it plans to allocate about 30% of its IPO shares to retail customers. Talk of a $1 trillion valuation injects excitement into the OpenAI IPO conversation, but don’t be surprised if the number clocks in lower after a recent fundraising round, especially if computing costs rise or technology markets shift.
Anthropic
Anthropic, creator of the Claude AI model, has emerged as a surprise heavyweight out of the artificial intelligence boom. The San Francisco-based company recently raised $65 billion at an approximately $965 billion valuation, surpassing OpenAI’s private-market valuation and becoming the world’s most valuable AI startup. Anthropic has reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO and is working with major investment banks on a public offering that could launch later this year.
Polymarket bettors place Anthropic IPO odds at 46% by September 2026, with zero odds of an IPO by June 30. Either way, the chatter and anticipation is rising.
“Anthropic is the cleanest pure play on frontier LLM economics outside of OpenAI itself,” Debelov said. “The real question is whether the model layer or the application layer ends up capturing the margin. I’d own it but treat it like a venture bet and not a core position.”
The company’s rapid ascent has been fueled by explosive enterprise demand for its AI coding and productivity tools, pushing annualized revenue sharply higher over the past year. It’s becoming apparent that Wall Street views Anthropic as the leading alternative to OpenAI, particularly among corporate customers prioritizing AI safety and governance. Consequently, the upcoming IPO will test whether public markets are willing to support valuations approaching $1 trillion for companies whose future depends on maintaining a costly technological arms race where no clear winner has been crowned yet.
[Read: 6 of the Best AI ETFs to Buy for 2026]
Anduril Industries
With the U.S.-Iran military conflict still percolating and the U.S. Department of Defense expected to spend a whopping $855.7 billion this year, Anduril Industries’ expected 2026 IPO will take full advantage.
Not for nothing, but Silicon Valley is already way ahead of the game on funding Anduril’s pre-IPO growth. Exhibit A is Andreessen Horowitz, a Valley venture funding firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, which recently announced its intent to raise an additional $4 billion for the autonomous weapons system and AI-fueled surveillance networking company, in partnership with Thrive Capital. The new funding, when it fills the pipeline, is expected to boost Anduril’s valuation to above $60 billion.
Anduril founder and CEO Palmer Luckey has indicated a preference for an IPO, noting in 2025 that Anduril is “definitely going to be a publicly traded company,” and that “We are running this company to be the shape of a publicly traded company.”
Luckey also noted there isn’t “really a path” to an IPO, but the new round of private funding may provide some clarity by the second half of 2026.
Databricks
Long expected to go public in 2026, Databricks looks like it’s pushing back an IPO until 2027, citing too much market turmoil right now.
In a June 4 Bloomberg interview, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi said that ideally, an IPO would create a market transaction mechanism for employees. “We will be a public company. I just think this is a terrible year to go public.”
The San Francisco-based enterprise software company is holding up its end of the bargain, with $5.4 billion in annual revenue as of February 2026 — that’s up 65% on a year-to-year basis. In the same month, Databricks closed a $5 billion financing round at an estimated $134 billion valuation, up 34% from a mid-2025 valuation point and roughly doubling its 2024 year-end valuation.
The company’s Databricks Lakehouse Platform enables companies like Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Rivian Automotive Inc. (RIVN) and Shell PLC (SHEL) to not only store and track data on one platform, but it also allows them to train their own language models via a generative AI layer that’s built into the Databricks platform, stemming from its $1.3 billion purchase of MosaicML in 2023.
Payward (Kraken)
Kraken made some news in the IPO realm last week, but not the way most investors expected.
On June 3, Payward Services, Kraken’s parent company, announced that its xStocks framework will enable Kraken customers and those of select xStocks Alliance members to participate in tokenized U.S.-listed IPOs at the offering price. That, the company said, “opens a corner of capital markets historically reserved for institutional investors,” in a news release.
“Going public should mean public to everyone. For decades, getting in at the IPO price has been a privilege of geography and net worth, and the most exciting moments in capital markets have been reserved for the investors closest to them. That worldview is breaking down,” said Mark Greenberg, global head of Payward Services. “Now a retail investor in Medellín, Madrid or Malaysia can have similar access to a U.S.-listed IPO, and Payward Services’ xStocks infrastructure is finally making that possible for the masses.”
Payward is inching along with its own IPO showcase, with some trading sites pegging an October IPO for the company. The company has soured after a mid-March pause in its IPO plans stemming from a chaotic cryptocurrency market and, at the time, waning IPO demand due to tariff troubles and the start of the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Payward appeared to be revving its engines again only a month later. Speaking at the Semafor World Economy summit in Washington, D.C., Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi announced on April 14 that it had confidentially filed for an IPO with the SEC. While no timeline was given, Kraken had previously filed an S-1 with U.S. regulators in November 2025, aiming to open its IPO in the first or second quarter of 2026.
Back in November, Kraken’s valuation had settled at $20 billion after it raised $800 million in new funds. A new round of funding wasn’t as impressive, with an adjusted valuation of $13.3 billion, about 30% lower than in late 2025. Now it seems Kraken will wait things out until the cryptocurrency market improves. In the meantime, the company can focus on the unglamorous work that comes before any IPO, including meeting compliance standards, boosting revenue and improving operations.
Stripe
IPO investors interested in Stripe continue to bide their time, with no concrete IPO in sight despite plenty of background activity suggesting the company will go public sooner rather than later.
Founded in 2010 by Irish entrepreneurs Patrick and John Collison, the fintech company, headquartered in Dublin and San Francisco, has seen rumors of a Stripe IPO dating back to 2021. At the time, cashless payments (Stripe’s bread and butter) skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but lagged in 2022 and 2023. Since then, the timing hasn’t clicked for a Stripe IPO, but that financial growth suggests that scenario could change.
Earlier this year, Stripe initiated a tender offer for staffers and shareholders valuing the company at $159 billion. That figure is well ahead of fintech payment competitors like PayPal Holdings Inc. (PYPL), which holds a $37 billion market cap. Industry payment volumes are up, as well, rising to $1.9 trillion in 2025. That’s 34% higher than in 2024, according to company officials.
Stripe is also expanding its geographic footprint, with 57% of its customer base comprising non-U.S. clients. Additionally, the company’s new business grew at a 50% clip from 2024 to 2025, spurred by AI payment technology deals with OpenAI and Microsoft.
There’s no specific IPO date, as Stripe co-founder John Collison stated in January 2026 that the company is “in no rush” to go public, while it continues to use already-upbeat tender offers to provide liquidity to employees. Polymarket data agrees, with only 13% of investors believing Stripe will go public in 2026, well below the 46% that say Stripe will acquire PayPal in 2026.
Good Advice for Newbie IPO Investors
If you’re looking to get into the IPO market, you should understand a few things while doing your due diligence.
First, understand which category of investor you are: risk-capable or risk-averse.
To find out, consider Circle as the cleanest recent case study: It priced at $31, closed its first day up about 167% near $83, ran to just under $300 within three weeks, then round-tripped back toward its first-day levels after the lock-up expired.
“The people who captured the most weren’t the IPO-day buyers, they were the early holders who got in years earlier,” says Chan Ann, founder at Tessera Labs. (Tessera recently received funding of its own, with Andreessen Horowitz steering $60 million into the business.) “By the time something hits the public market, much of the asymmetric return has already been earned by people who had access you didn’t.”
You should also understand that IPO day is a liquidity event for insiders, not an entry point engineered for you. “A large first-day pop is often a sign the deal was underpriced for institutional allocation you couldn’t get,” Ann says. “Be especially careful with names that leave no margin of safety on day one.”
Finally, respect the lock-up calendar.
“The supply dynamics six months after listing are frequently more important than the first-day move,” Ann adds. “A lot of new investors buy the excitement and sell into the post-lock-up pressure, which is exactly backward. The returns are increasingly captured before the public ever gets a ticker.”
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7 Best Upcoming IPOs in 2026 originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 06/08/26: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
