The IPO supercycle might be warming up
Forget the usual drumroll for a sleepy software company with a tidy market cap and a one-page pitch deck. We’re talking about mega IPOs — the kind of listings that can jolt the whole private-market ecosystem.
Anthropic has reportedly filed confidentially to go public, which would put it ahead of OpenAI in the IPO race. Meanwhile, SpaceX is said to be getting ready to hit the market this month. That’s a very different vibe from the usual “wait, is this a real company?” debut.
Why investors should care
If these names start lining up for public markets, a few things could happen:
- Private valuations get a reality check. When giants finally have to answer to public investors, fantasy pricing gets harder to defend.
- IPO appetite could spill over. A successful mega listing can reopen the door for other startups that have been parked in venture land.
- Tech sentiment gets a new benchmark. These companies are often seen as bellwethers for AI, space, and frontier tech money flows.
Uncharted territory, indeed
PitchBook’s Emily Zheng called this “unchartered territory,” and that feels about right. The public markets are used to giant companies showing up — just not always ones that still feel like they live in the private-market group chat.
Big picture: if Anthropic and SpaceX really do step into the IPO spotlight, investors may have to dust off a new playbook for what a blockbuster debut even looks like.