The $3 Trillion IPO Year: Most Anticipated IPOs of 2026

SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic are going public this year with a combined estimated valuation exceeding $3 trillion, making 2026 one of the biggest IPO years in history. 

Here's what every investor needs to know about the best upcoming IPOs before the window opens.

Everyone's Watching the AI IPOs. What Else Is Coming?

The 2026 IPO calendar is the most concentrated capital event in a decade.

Goldman Sachs forecasts roughly $160 billion in U.S. IPO proceeds in 2026, potentially a record year.

U.S. markets have already absorbed $23 billion in IPOs in Q1 2026, a 91% jump year over year, with the mega-deals still ahead. 

Much of that capital is expected to flow into AI and AI infrastructure. OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX, and Databricks are all moving toward public markets at around the same time, which is unprecedented. 

But focusing only on the AI giants misses the bigger opportunity. Some of the most important IPO candidates of 2026 sit outside the headlines, from fintech infrastructure and defense technology to consumer platforms and e-commerce. 

And as investors learned from Figma in 2025, heavily hyped pre-IPO but not the top performer, the most talked-about name isn't always the one that ends up delivering the best return. 

So while AI is attracting most of the attention, the better question is: what else is coming? Which is exactly what our list answers. 

2026 Most Anticipated IPOs at a Glance

1. SpaceX - The $75 Billion IPO That Could Break Every Record 

• Expected valuation: $1.8T 
• Exchange: Nasdaq (ticker: SPCX) 
• Status: S-1 filed May 20, 2026 
• Debut Target: June 12, 2026 

The SpaceX IPO is shaping up as one of the largest stock market events in recent history, potentially entering America’s ten most valuable companies on day one. Goldman Sachs leads the underwriting alongside Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan across a 21-bank syndicate. 

The company is expected to raise roughly $75 billion at a $1.8 trillion valuation, making it the largest IPO in history if pricing holds. At that level, the stock would trade at roughly 109-116x annual revenue. 

SpaceX claims a total addressable market of $28.5 trillion, larger than the entire European economy, though less than $2 trillion of that figure comes from space or connectivity. The remaining ~$26 trillion is tied to AI. 

Before You Buy SPCX: Three Risks Buried in the S-1 

1. Musk has total control. He holds 85.1% of the voting power, meaning shareholders have almost no say in how the company is run. Buying SPCX is a financial bet on Musk, not a seat at the table. 
2. Retail investors receive unusually broad access to the IPO, with up to 30% of shares reportedly reserved for individuals through platforms such as Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, SoFi, and E*TRADE. 
3. A Tesla merger is on the table. Speculation about combining SpaceX and Tesla has grown ahead of the listing. The two companies already share board members, engineers, and hundreds of millions in annual transactions.  

The bull case for SpaceX is Starlink, which has no real competitor, as nobody else has the satellites, the launch costs, or the regulatory approvals to match it. If subscriber growth holds and the next generation of rockets delivers, SpaceX could eventually grow into its price tag. 

The bear case is that Starlink customers fell 18% to about $81/month between 2023 and 2025, as the company expands into lower-priced international markets.  

Major launch programs such as Falcon Heavy and Starship have repeatedly missed development targets, and the xAI merger adds exposure to a $250 billion AI business that is still losing money. 

At this price, with losses accelerating, the unusually large slice of shares reserved for retail investors looks more like a search for buyers that institutional money won't be. 

2. OpenAI - Can a $1 Trillion Valuation Outrun Massive AI Costs?

• Expected valuations: $852B-$1T+ 
• Exchange: Nasdaq (expected) 
• Status: Confidential S-1 filed May 22, 2026 
• Debut Target: September 2026 

OpenAI moved toward a confidential IPO filing shortly after SpaceX's IPO plans emerged, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley helping lead both offerings. The timing seems deliberate: watch how the market receives SpaceX, then price accordingly.  

If SpaceX opens well, OpenAI prices aggressively. If it stumbles, the September window buys time to recalibrate. Either way, 2026 is shaping up as the biggest year for new stock listings in history. 

The bull case is that enterprise adoption is accelerating, with OpenAI’s annualized revenue hitting ~$25 billion as of February 2026 and targeting $600 billion in total compute spending by 2030. 

If OpenAI can convert its brand recognition and early lead into durable long-term contracts before rivals close the technology gap, the revenue trajectory could eventually justify the price. 

The bear case is what it costs to get there. OpenAI lost roughly $1.22 for every $1 of revenue in Q1 2026 and has disclosed infrastructure commitments totaling about $1.4 trillion. 

Competition from Google and Anthropic is real and well-funded. Meanwhile, OpenAI has missed internal revenue and user targets, faced recurring leadership turnover, and does not expect to become cash-flow positive until 2029. 

At a $1 trillion valuation, investors would be paying 40x annualized revenue for a business still years away from positive cash flow. 

3. Anthropic - The Enterprise AI Challenger Growing Faster Than Its Rivals

• Expected valuations: $965B
• Exchange: Nasdaq (expected) 
• Status: IPO preparations underway with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley
• Debut Target: October 2026 

Of the big three AI companies going public this year, Anthropic goes last, which is its advantage. By the time it prices, wherever SpaceX and OpenAI landed tells Anthropic exactly how aggressive it can afford to be. 

That advantage just got significantly stronger. On May 28, Anthropic closed a $65 billion Series H funding round. The round pushed its post-money valuation to $965 billion, making Anthropic the most valuable private AI company in the world. 

Anthropic makes Claude, the AI model increasingly favored by large enterprises. Roughly 80% of its revenue comes from business customers, and the number spending more than $1 million annually doubled to over 1,000 less than two months after its February 2026 funding round. 

The bull case: Anthropic has the fastest enterprise revenue growth of the three. Total revenue reached $4.8 billion in Q1 2026 alone. 

The bear case: The compute bills are enormous and locked in for years. Anthropic is paying SpaceX $1.25 billion per month, roughly $15 billion a year, for access to data centers and GPU capacity through May 2029.  

There is also a pre-IPO communications problem. Because Anthropic is still private, some investors buy its shares through third-party platforms before the IPO.  

In May, Anthropic publicly named eight of those platforms as unauthorized, warning that shares sold through them would be void, crashing funds that had marketed Anthropic exposure to retail investors. After the backlash, it then quietly removed four names from the list without explanation 

For a company approaching a $1 trillion IPO, walking back a market-moving statement without comment is not the kind of disclosure discipline public investors expect. 

4. Databricks - The AI Company Already Making Money

• Expected valuations: $134B 
• Exchange: Nasdaq (expected) 
• Status: No S-1 filed; H2 2026 widely anticipated 
• Debut Target: Late 2026 

Databricks is the proof for investors that at least one AI company can actually make money. As of February 2026, it had crossed a $5.4 billion revenue run rate, was growing 65% year over year, and had positive free cash flow. 

Its business is an AI and data lakehouse platform used by companies like Samsung, Comcast, and Shell to store, process, and build AI apps on top of their own data.  

The infrastructure is deeply embedded and expensive to replace, which is why enterprise software investors pay premium multiples for it. 

CEO Ali Ghodsi has not ruled out going public in 2026, while Databricks secured a $1.8 billion debt facility led by JPMorgan in January, which investors viewed as a step toward IPO. 

Still, Ghodsi has made clear he’s in no rush, preferring to stay private and keep investing without the pressure of quarterly earnings. 

The bull case: Positive free cash flow at 65% revenue growth is rare. AI-specific products alone are generating $1.4 billion in annualized revenue, and its newer AI-focused database product is growing at twice the rate of its core business. 

The bear case: A $134 billion valuation leaves little room for error once public market scrutiny kicks in. Any slowdown in growth or pullback in enterprise software spending could make that number difficult to justify in public markets. 

5. Stripe - The $159 Billion Fintech Giant That Still Doesn't Need an IPO 

• Expected valuations: $159B+ 
• Exchange: Nasdaq (expected) 
• Status: No S-1 filed 
• Debut Target: Late 2026, possibly 2027 

Stripe has been "about to IPO" since 2021. CEO Patrick Collison has been consistent that Stripe does not need public-market capital and can remain private for as long as it makes sense, showing little urgency to pursue an IPO. 

Stripe processes payments for more than five million businesses. In 2025, those businesses ran $1.9 trillion through their platform, up 34% from the year before. 

At $159 billion, Stripe is already priced at a significant premium to PayPal, its closest public comparable, which processes similar volumes but trades at a fraction of that number. 

Stripe has also become the payments infrastructure for the AI economy. OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, and Mistral use Stripe's payments and billing tools as they turn AI products into subscription businesses. 

The bull case: Stripe is profitable, growing fast, embedded in both traditional e-commerce and the emerging AI economy, and run by a founder known for making good decisions slowly. It is the most operationally sound company on this list. 

The bear case: Apple, Shopify, and the major banks are all building their own payment infrastructure, which puts pressure on the fees Stripe charges and the share of the market it can hold. 

And unlike a software company, payments volume is tied to the broader economy, so a consumer slowdown hits Stripe directly, with little buffer. 

6. Cerebras Systems - The AI IPO That Already Tested Investor Demand

• IPO valuation: $56B (at offer price) / ~$95B (at close) 
• Exchange: Nasdaq | Ticker: CBRS 
• Status: Public as of May 14, 2026 
• Raised: $5.55 billion 

For investors asking which is the best IPO to buy now, Cerebras is the only name on this list already trading. Its debut, priced at $185, closing day one at $331.07, and then falling about 10% the next day, shows where investor appetite for AI infrastructure sits in 2026. 

The IPO was the largest U.S. tech listing since Uber in 2019. Strong investor demand prompted underwriters to raise the offering price multiple times before the shares began trading. 

That kind of reception signals how the market will likely greet SpaceX and the wave of AI companies watching from the sidelines. 

The bull case: OpenAI signed a ~$20 billion deal to buy computing capacity from Cerebras for ChatGPT, while AWS is also deploying Cerebras chips in its data centers. The company says its capacity is effectively sold out through 2027. 

The bear case: Nvidia’s software ecosystem is already deeply embedded across the AI industry. Switching away means rewriting code and retraining engineers, risks that many companies may avoid. 

7. Shein - A $38 Billion Retail Giant Still Searching for an Exchange 

• Expected valuations: $30B-$50B 
• Exchange: Hong Kong (expected) 
• Status: Confidential filing submitted to HKEX, July 2025 
• Debut Target: 2026 (unconfirmed) 

Shein has been trying to go public for over two years. It failed in New York, stalled in London, and is now pursuing Hong Kong, its third attempt. This is because the business is large enough to list, but too politically contested to list anywhere convenient. 

Its business model: Shein’s algorithm can turn social media trends into small production runs in as little as three days, compared with several weeks for traditional fast-fashion retailers such as Inditex's Zara.  

That speed propelled Shein to ~$38 billion in revenue in 2024, cementing its position as one of the world's largest fast-fashion companies.  

Why Shein's Third IPO Attempt May Be Its Hardest Yet 

• China remains the key risk. Despite its Singapore headquarters, Shein's China-based supply chain and reliance on Beijing's approval process have complicated its IPO plans. 

• Forced-labor allegations tied to Xinjiang continue to hang over the company. Shein denies them, but the scrutiny has already complicated multiple listing attempts. 

The bull case: Shein would trade cheaply relative to its $38 billion in revenue, a fraction of Inditex's, which owns Zara, multiple despite faster growth. 

The bear case: Pressure is coming from every direction: tariffs, trade barriers, supply chain scrutiny, and Beijing's veto over any listing. Valuation has already collapsed from $100 billion to $30-50 billion in three years. 

8. Anduril Industries - Defense Tech's Fastest-Rising IPO Candidate 

• Expected valuation: $61 billion
• Exchange: Nasdaq (expected)
• Status: No S-1 filed
• Debut Target: TBD (no confirmed timeline)

Anduril is one of the fastest-growing defense companies in the United States in under a decade. It raised $5 billion in May 2026 at a $61 billion valuation, a funding round led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, more than doubling its valuation from $30.5 billion less than a year earlier. 

Its founder, Palmer Luckey, has said publicly that Anduril will "definitely" go public, and that there is no realistic path to winning the kinds of trillion-dollar defense contracts the company is pursuing without being publicly traded. 

No S-1 has been filed, and no timeline has been confirmed. 

Anduril's Growth Depends on One Customer: The U.S. Government 

• Anduril's business is heavily dependent on U.S. government contracts, which is reliable but concentrated. A shift in defense priorities, a change in administration, or a budget dispute in Congress can reprice those contracts overnight. 

• The proposed Golden Dome missile-defense program is the highest-profile example. Securing a major role is an advantage, but it also ties the company's future to political outcomes investors cannot reliably predict.  

The bull case: Defense budgets are rising, and drone warfare is central to modern conflict. If Lattice becomes the standard software backbone for autonomous military systems, it could significantly expand Anduril's addressable market. 

The bear case: The concentration of revenue from one customer: the US government. Contracts can be reversed, procurement delayed, and budgets frozen. 

9. Discord - A Huge Audience Still Waiting to Pay Off 

• Expected valuations: $15B-$25B 
• Exchange: Nasdaq 
• Status: Confidential S-1 filed January 2026 
• Debut Target: 2026 (originally Q1; timing uncertain) 

Discord filed confidentially for its IPO in January 2026, working with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. A March debut was the original target, but the listing has not materialized on that schedule.  

The company has 200 million monthly active users, famously rejected a $12 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft in 2021, and has been building toward public markets ever since. 

Discord started as a gamer chat tool and expanded into a general-purpose community platform. The core product is free. Revenue comes primarily from Nitro, a $10/month subscription for better streaming, custom emojis, and larger uploads. 

The company is working to diversify revenue beyond Nitro through digital goods and developer-focused monetization tools. 

Discord: Can 200 Million Users Become a Bigger Business? 

• The valuation gap from the 2021 funding round is worth noting. Discord was valued at $15 billion in 2021. Today, estimates still sit around $15-25 billion despite years of growth and revenue gains. 

• Child safety is also a material risk: Discord faces lawsuits over minor exploitation, and its new CEO testified before Congress. Expect this to dominate the S-1. 

The bull case: Discord has 200 million monthly users and revenue has doubled in two years with limited monetization. If it can expand advertising or business tools without alienating users, there is significant upside. 

The bear case: Discord's users are resistant to commercialization. Passionate free communities rarely monetize cleanly. 

10. Plaid - The Fintech Infrastructure Behind the AI Economy 

• Expected valuations: $8B+ 
• Exchange: Nasdaq (expected) 
• Status: No S-1 filed 
• Debut Target: 2026-2027 (timing uncertain) 

Plaid is infrastructure. Most people have never heard of it, but anyone who has linked a bank account to Venmo, Chime, or Betterment has probably used it.  

Its core product is a data connection layer that lets third-party apps access bank account information securely, without the user handing over sensitive credentials directly.  

The company connects consumer bank accounts to more than 11,000 financial institutions and thousands of apps. A February 2026 funding round valued it at roughly $8 billion, primarily to provide employee liquidity, often a signal that IPO preparations are underway. 

Its CEO has confirmed an IPO is on the roadmap, while its CFO says the company has "earned the right to pick its time." 

The bull case: Revenue grew 40% in 2025 to over $500 million, accelerating from 27% the prior year (WSJ). Its use case has also expanded from a connectivity layer into fraud detection, payments, mortgage verification, and onboarding. 

The bear case: Plaid depends on access to bank data that it does not control. JPMorgan has publicly challenged the economics of that relationship, pushing for fees on aggregators such as Plaid and raising concerns about data access and security. 

Honorable Mentions: 4 High-Profile IPOs Still Taking Shape 

These companies aren't expected to headline the 2026 IPO calendar, but they're still among the most closely monitored private businesses by investors worldwide:

• Revolut
• Reliance Jio
• Canva
• Kraken

1. Revolut| Expected Valuation: $200B | Debut Target: 2028 

Revolut is Europe's most valuable startup and has no immediate plans to go public.  

CEO Nik Storonsky confirmed in April 2026 that a listing is at least two years away, and a November 2025 secondary share sale at a $75 billion valuation reduced the pressure further by giving existing investors partial liquidity.  

When it does list, the target range is a valuation of $200 billion, which would rank among the largest fintech listings ever. 

The business supports that ambition on paper: $6 billion in revenue in 2025, $2.3 billion in pre-tax profit, 52.5 million customers, and a full UK banking licence finally secured in March 2026 after a four-year wait. 

2. Reliance Jio| Expected Raise: ~$4B | Debut Target: 2026 (India) 

India's largest telecom operator by market share has been circling a public offering for years.  

Chairman Mukesh Ambani is expected to provide an IPO update at the company's June 19 AGM, with some reports suggesting the structure could shift toward a primary issuance. This means a new capital rather than founder liquidity.  

If Jio raises roughly $4 billion as reported, it would rank among the largest Indian IPOs in recent years. 

3. Canva | Expected Valuation: ~A$65B | Debut Target: 2027

The Australian design platform confirmed it will not IPO in 2026. Co-founder Cliff Obrecht told reporters the company is "fully IPO ready" but wants its shift toward AI and workflow tools to be established before facing public market scrutiny.  

Canva has made a series of acquisitions, including Affinity and Leonardo.Ai, as it expands from a design platform into broader workplace productivity and AI tools, putting it on a collision course with Microsoft and Google's productivity suites.  

4. Kraken| Expected Valuation: TBC | Debut Target: 2026 (timing uncertain) 

The US crypto exchange confirmed its confidential S-1, first filed in November 2025, remains active despite pausing IPO plans in March amid weaker market conditions. 

Kraken is the most credible pure-play crypto exchange IPO candidate in the US, better regulated and more institutionally trusted than most of its peers.  

The filing will force transparency on a sector that has operated largely without it, and the numbers Kraken puts in the open will set a benchmark for how public markets value crypto infrastructure.  

The timing depends heavily on market conditions and whether the current regulatory environment holds. 

Sector Breakdown: Most 2026 IPO Capital Is Flowing Into AI 

Most of what’s going public in 2026 is essentially one big bet on AI. Here’s the map out of the pipeline by sector: 

• ~88% is AI & AI infrastructure: SpaceX via Starlink and xAI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks, Cerebras, and Anduril's Lattice AI platform 
• ~4% is fintech: Stripe & Revolut 
• ~5% is consumer, SaaS & e-commerce: Canva, Discord, & Shein 
• ~2% is defense technology: Anduril's core defense-systems revenue 

Compare that to 2021, when IPO money was spread across software, biotech, electric vehicles, fintech, and crypto. This year, it's almost all AI. 

That's not necessarily bad, but it does mean that if sentiment around AI turns sour, every single name on this list gets hit at the same time. 

5 Forces Behind the Biggest IPO Wave in 2026 

The 2026 IPO calendar is the convergence of six forces that have been building since 2021. 

Together, they explain why the IPO window is reopening now, and why it could close just as quickly if market conditions change. 

• Figma's post-IPO collapse made lockup schedules impossible to ignore
• Private markets can no longer fund AI's biggest companies alone
• AI is expensive, more expensive than anyone planned
• After five years of waiting, venture investors need liquidity
• Investors are done paying for stories: From AI hype to proving the business works

1. Figma's Post-IPO Collapse Made Lockup Schedules Impossible to Ignore

The biggest mistake in 2025's IPO was lockup engineering.  

When a company goes public, early investors and employees are typically barred from selling their shares for a set period, usually 90 to 180 days. When that window opens, a flood of supply can hit the market, pushing the price down.  

Figma is the most recent example. Figma’s stock fell 80%+ from its post-IPO peak because its unlock schedule released shares in multiple separate waves, each one hitting just as the previous sellers were finishing.  

The lesson for 2026: find out when insiders can sell before you buy. SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic will each have that schedule buried in their filings. A stock that looks fairly priced on day one can look very different six months later when millions of additional shares hit the market. 

2. Private Markets Can No Longer Fund AI's Biggest Companies Alone

For years, the private market delayed IPOs by giving companies the option of secondary sales and giant private funding rounds, avoiding the public eye entirely. 

That arrangement is breaking down. Companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic now require so much capital and have so many early investors waiting for liquidity that staying private indefinitely no longer makes financial sense. 

Building AI data centers, satellite networks, and next-generation chips costs hundreds of billions of dollars. At this scale, the IPO market is reopening because some of the world's largest private companies have simply outgrown the private market. 

Renaissance Capital projects 200-230 IPOs in 2026 raising $40-$60 billion. Goldman Sachs is more bullish, projecting around $160 billion in total U.S. IPO proceeds. 

3. AI Is Expensive, More Expensive Than Anyone Planned  

Morgan Stanley estimates that Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Oracle could collectively spend more than $800 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone, with spending still climbing afterward. 

The same banks estimate that the technology sector may need to issue as much as $1.5 trillion in new debt over the next several years to finance AI infrastructure and data-center construction.  

For the startups trying to compete with them, they fall behind without access to that kind of capital. Going public is how infrastructure-scale businesses like OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceX close that gap.  

4. After Five Years of Waiting, Venture Investors Need Liquidity

Many venture funds that backed today's biggest AI companies during the 2020-2021 boom need liquidity and an eventual return. That wait has stretched to five years or more.  

The PitchBook-NVCA Q1 2026 Venture Monitor shows the median distributions-to-paid-in ratio for the past decade's vintages still sits below 1x, meaning many funds haven't even returned the original capital their LPs put in. 

The pension funds, university endowments, and family offices behind those venture funds are now pressing for actual cash. SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic going public represent the largest cash-out event in venture capital history.  

5. Investors Are Done Paying for Stories: From AI Hype to Proving the Business Works

In 2021, a compelling vision was enough to command a billion-dollar valuation. That era is over. Investors going into 2026 want to see actual revenue, healthy profit margins, and a credible path to making money.  

The companies that will succeed in this IPO cycle those that can back up the pitch with numbers. The ones that can't will find public market investors less forgiving than the private backers who funded them to this point.  

That said, disagreement exists about how much of the current AI excitement is justified. Several prominent investors and analysts like Michael Burry have drawn comparisons to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.  

Others, including BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, contend that the AI boom is supported by real cash flows and earnings growth, distinguishing it from past technology bubbles that relied more heavily on future expectations. 

Both camps are looking at the same data and reaching opposite conclusions, which is itself worth keeping in mind before committing capital to any of the names on this list. 

Most Anticipated IPOs of 2026: Final Words 

Three trillion dollars in private capital going public at the same time is a stress test for markets, for valuations, and for investors who haven’t seen an IPO wave this large in years. 

Some names, like Databricks and Stripe, have the numbers to back up their valuations. Others are asking investors to pay for future potential. 

And while AI will dominate the headlines, the infrastructure companies behind them may quietly outperform the ones commanding the most media oxygen. 

2026 could be a historic year for IPOs, but also one where the gap between price and value is unusually wide. Know what you're buying, and read the S-1. 

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Most Anticipated IPOs 2026 FAQs 

1. What is the biggest IPO expected in 2026?

SpaceX is the biggest IPO of 2026 and likely the largest in history, targeting a $1.8 trillion valuation with a roughly $75 billion raise. 

OpenAI's expected September 2026 listing could approach or exceed SpaceX's valuation at the $1 trillion end of its range, but on a raise size, SpaceX is likely the record-setter. 

2. When is the SpaceX IPO date?

SpaceX is targeting a Nasdaq listing on June 12, 2026, with the investor roadshow opening June 8 and pricing the night of June 11.  

The S-1 was made public on May 20, 2026. All dates remain subject to SEC review and market conditions and could shift. 

3. What is OpenAI's expected IPO valuation?

OpenAI is targeting a valuation between $852 billion and $1 trillion, with a confidential S-1 filed on May 22, 2026, and a September 2026 listing window.  

At the upper end of that range, OpenAI would become the largest pure technology IPO in history. 

4. Is Anthropic going public in 2026?

Anthropic is targeting an October 2026 listing. In May 2026, the company closed a $65 billion Series H funding round at a $965 billion post-money valuation, surpassing OpenAI to become the most valuable private AI company in the world.

The public offering itself, expected to raise more than $60 billion, remains on track for October, with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley in early discussions about underwriting roles.

5. What is the difference between a grey market IPO price and the actual IPO price?

The grey market is an unofficial pre-IPO market where speculative contracts trade before a company lists. Prices reflect expectations rather than real supply and demand, and frequently diverge from where the stock ultimately prices.

In 2026, this carries an additional legal risk worth understanding. Anthropic publicly declared shares sold through certain unauthorized secondary platforms void and unrecognized on its cap table, crashing funds that had marketed that exposure to retail investors.

The same transfer restrictions exist in OpenAI's shareholder agreements. Buying pre-IPO shares through a third-party platform may mean your shares have no legal standing when the company lists.

6. How to buy IPO shares in 2026?

There are three ways to buy into a 2026 IPO, each with a different entry point and risk level:

• Primary allocation: Submit an Indication of Interest through a participating broker, like Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood, SoFi, or E*TRADE. The SpaceX S-1 confirms retail access through all five. Odds are low on hot deals, though; most buyers end up at the opening price anyway.
• Secondary market: Buy on day one at the opening price. You pay more, but you're trading on real demand, not speculation.
• Post-lockup: Insiders can't sell for 90–180 days after listing. When that window opens, prices often drop. Figma is the recent proof. Waiting frequently beats rushing in.

7. Are 2026 IPOs overvalued?

By traditional metrics, yes. SpaceX's proposed valuation equates to roughly 56x revenue and 109x EBITDA, outstripping Palantir and Tesla, two of Wall Street's priciest names, by a wide margin. 

OpenAI is reportedly priced at roughly 25-30x forward revenue with significant operating losses. The bull case is that AI-economy growth will outpace any historical comparison; the bear case is that 2025's Figma-style post-lockup collapses will repeat. 

8. How do I read an S-1 filing?

Focus on six sections in this order:  

• Risk Factors - the lawyers' candid version of the bear case;  
• Use of Proceeds - where the cash goes;  
• Capitalization - post-IPO share count and dilution;  
• Lockup Agreements - when can insiders sell;
• MD&A and Financial Statements - revenue growth, margin trajectory, accumulated deficit;  
• and Related-Party Transactions - cross-company deals with founder-affiliated entities.  

The full S-1 will be available on SEC EDGAR free of charge.