The initial public offering (“IPO”) market in 2026 is set to bring the debut of several high-profile companies, including SpaceX (SPCX) and Anthropic. In fact, SpaceX is primed to become the largest IPO ever, and there’s a good chance we see several IPOs hitting the $100 billion threshold – so-called “centicorns” – that will get investors’ hearts racing.
In 2026, the IPO market is being boosted by a general positive outlook for stocks. The S&P 500 stock index has posted three straight years of double-digit returns, helping juice investors’ “animal spirits.”
Amid this backdrop and a fever pitch for artificial intelligence (“AI”) stocks, this year may see a few IPOs crack the list of the top 10 largest debuts ever. While AI may be the hottest of the hot industries, defense and financial stocks are having a solid year, too.
That’s a far cry from a few years ago, when the IPO market was all but frozen. In 2022, the Federal Reserve was aggressively raising short-term interest rates to fight inflation.
Stocks plummeted that year, and so did IPOs — going from 1,078 debuts in 2021 to 202 the next year, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). IPOs dipped further in 2023, to just 169.
So, it’s important that companies take advantage of the “IPO window” when it’s open. They max out their valuation, raise more money, and generally set a winning tone for the company. If they don’t hit the window, an IPO might not debut for years, maybe even at a lower valuation.
Here are some of the hottest IPOs to watch in 2026 — and a few details to keep in mind before investing.
1. Anthropic
Anthropic is one of the big names in the AI space, and it’s already in the early stages of planning an IPO, having filed its prospectus with the SEC. The company behind the Claude chatbot has seen its valuation soar in recent funding rounds, rising from a $40 billion in late 2024 to $380 billion in early 2026. In May, Anthropic raised a further $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation.
In April, its annualized revenue topped $30 billion, but a company presentation in May showed it already soaring to $47 billion.
Anthropic would be one of the hottest IPOs in 2026, though investors will want to keep an eye on its cash burn. Here are more details on an Anthropic IPO.
2. OpenAI
OpenAI is another big name in the AI sector, and an IPO could top even Anthropic’s IPO in size, if it came to market. The firm behind ChatGPT and the DALL-E text-to-image model has also seen its pre-IPO valuation surge as private investors scramble for a piece of the action. In October 2024, OpenAI was valued at $157 billion, while a year later this figure reached $500 billion, before surging to $852 billion during a funding round in March. An IPO would likely push that figure still higher.
One key issue for investors is OpenAI’s cash burn, estimated at $14 billion in 2026, and the company is not projected to break even until at least 2030. So, investors will need to be comfortable with that glide path. Here are more details on a potential OpenAI IPO.
3. SpaceX (SPCX)
SpaceX is nothing if not ambitious, and despite all the competition from AI IPOs, CEO Elon Musk is targeting the largest IPO ever with SpaceX – an estimated $1.75 trillion. The company is best known for its Starlink satellite-based internet service and its rocket launches, but it has more in the pipeline, including plans for AI data centers in space, a lunar economy, and Mars exploration.
A SpaceX public offering could come at a key moment as defense- and space-related companies enjoy particular favor from governments. But investors need to pay close attention to SpaceX’s valuation — which soared from $210 billion in July 2024 to about $800 billion at year-end 2025 and now to $1.75 trillion in its IPO — since this surge is largely due to the company putting its thumb on the scale.
Here are further details on the SpaceX IPO and what’s going on.
4. Anduril Industries
Anduril Industries might not be the household name that some other potential IPOs are, but it’s an up-and-comer in the defense sector. The maker of autonomous weapons and related software raised $2.5 billion at a $30.5 billion valuation in June 2025. This offering was eight times oversubscribed, showing private investors really wanted in. In May, the company announced a $5 billion raise, putting the valuation at $61 billion, as part of a deal with venture capitalists Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
Anduril doubled its annual revenue to about $2.2 billion in 2025, after doubling it 2024, and more is on the way. Last year, it inked a new contract with the U.S. Army to produce an AR/VR headset for soldiers. In March, the U.S. Army awarded a $20 billion contract to the company to develop counter-drone capabilities. With the potential for greater government spending to modernize defense, Anduril could be a significant beneficiary of this priority.
5. Databricks
Databricks has been a long-rumored IPO, but 2026 may finally be the year that this data analytics firm takes the plunge into the public market. In any normal year, Databricks might be the highest-profile IPO, but not this year, even if its valuation surpasses the $134 billion it reached in its latest funding round in December.
The company hit run-rate revenue of $5.4 billion in the fourth quarter, growing at 65% year over year. The net retention rate — a measure of how much existing clients are increasing or decreasing their spending year over year — hit more than 140%, showing clients are rapidly increasing their uptake of Databricks’ services.
6. Plaid
Plaid is another long-rumored IPO candidate, and the fast-growing financial company may finally make its debut this year. Plaid helps apps connect with users’ bank accounts and make payments through fintech platforms such as Venmo. Revenue grew more than 25% in 2025, notching a record for the company. Plaid last raised money in April 2025, hitting up investors for $575 million, valuing the company at $6.1 billion. An early 2026 tender offer raised the valuation to $8 billion.
Plaid has already been the subject of acquisition rumors, with Visa attempting to purchase the company in 2020 for $5.3 billion — a defensive move to protect Visa’s debit card business that eventually was blocked by the Department of Justice. Both are a far cry from the $13.4 billion valuation in 2021, and management attributes the subsequent decline to the high valuation multiples of that period. If 2026 isn’t the year for Plaid to IPO, management still indicates that a public debut is the direction it’s moving.
7. Cerebras Systems (CBRS)
IPO date: May 14, 2026
First-day return: 68%
AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems (CBRS) offers a compelling pitch and completed a second-quarter IPO after delaying its debut plans last year. Management says its systems are faster and cheaper than those of market leader Nvidia (NVDA). Its wafer-scale chips can reportedly process the inference workloads on key AI models up to 20 times faster than Nvidia’s units. And Cerebras has lined up at least one AI heavyweight as a partner, agreeing to provide computing power to OpenAI for an estimated $20 billion.
The AI chipmaker has a strong history of rising valuations. It was valued at $23 billion in early 2026, before launching an IPO that kept repricing the stock higher, and is now valued at around $46 billion in the public markets. AI is hot right now, and investors are interested in companies that can capture some of Nvidia’s high margins.
Here’s more on Cerebras and why it looks so interesting.
8. Stripe
Stripe might be the biggest “will they, won’t they?” of all time. It’s been rumored to go public since what feels like forever. But 2026 may finally be the year that the payments company makes it happen. Stripe offers payment processing and infrastructure helping some five million businesses conduct $1.9 trillion in transactions in 2025 — up 34%. The company returned to profitability in 2024, and management said they expect profits to continue flowing in the future.
Stripe’s valuation has soared since the start of 2025, when a tender offer valued the company at $91.5 billion. A February tender offer cashed out employee shares at a $159 billion valuation. Any IPO would likely push the valuation well beyond these levels.
9. Canva
As its name suggests, Canva is an online design platform founded in 2013 in Sydney, Australia. Canva helps users create high-quality designs for corporate presentations, invitations, and social media graphics, among many other uses. It now leverages AI to simplify the design process, allowing even casual clients to quickly produce polished graphics with minimal effort.
Canva reported 260 million users as of October 2025, of which 29 million are monthly paid users. Management also said the company had $3.5 billion in annualized revenue at that time. While many analysts had expected Canva to conduct its IPO last year, 2026 may be the year that it finally happens. An employee stock sale in September 2025 valued the company at $42 billion.
10. Jersey Mike’s
Not a defense, financial, or AI stock, sandwich shop Jersey Mike’s is an under-the-radar IPO for 2026. The company was sold to Blackstone in early 2025, and the private-equity firm is looking for a quick exit. Blackstone is reportedly seeking at least a $12 billion valuation — after buying the company for $8 billion. It’s working with investment banks on an offering and has already filed a prospectus with the SEC, so the odds are good it debuts soon.
Jersey Mike’s has grown its footprint rapidly in the last decade or so, and management thinks there’s room for even more expansion. The sub shop nearly tripled its store count, moving from 1,048 locations in 2015 to 3,256 at the end of 2025. From 2021 to 2024, it added more than 1,000 locations. It sees the potential for 8,000 locations in the U.S., with additional growth expected in Canada and Europe.
Regards,
James Royal, Ph.D.
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