2026 could be the year Wall Street finally meets the next generation of tech giants. Companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX are edging closer to record-breaking public offerings that could break the boundaries of the IPO market — both in size and spectacle.
For years, tech startups delayed going public, choosing instead to grow privately on billions in venture funding while avoiding the scrutiny and pressure of the stock market. But the stakes, cost and speed of the artificial intelligence race seems to have changed that calculus. Top contenders now need far more compute capacity to scale ever-larger AI models, investing tens of billions of dollars in data centers and cloud infrastructure, as well as research and development on next-generation AI chips.
When it comes down to it, private investors can only supply so much capital. Long-term growth increasingly depends on tapping hungry, FOMO-saturated public markets that want in on the action.
Tech IPOs to Look Out For In 2026
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- SpaceX
- Canva
- Strava
- Databricks
Still, timing is everything. Disruptive macroeconomic forces — from ongoing tariff threats to the country’s longest government shutdown to date — have kept IPO activity subdued. According to the New York Times, U.S. listings dropped from 397 in 2021 to just 202 last year. Now, with markets near record highs and investor appetite for AI surging, these companies could stage some of the largest public offerings we’ve ever seen. The current record holder is the world’s largest oil producer, Saudi Aramco, which debuted at $25 billion in 2019. But experts say that some of the upcoming floats could easily dwarf that, with valuations projected into the hundreds of billions.
Going public would also shed some light on the financial realities of several controversial, multi-billion-dollar cloud deals, revealing whether these AI development pipelines and projected revenue streams are truly sustainable or resemble something closer to a bubble. If all goes as planned, the next few months may very well birth Silicon Valley’s very first hectocorn, ushering in an entirely new cohort of tech billionaires.
Tech Companies That Could Go Public In 2026
OpenAI
OpenAI may be the AI industry’s most prominent loss-making company so far, catapulting generative AI into the mainstream in 2022 with the launch of its popular AI chatbot ChatGPT. Since then, the world has watched the San Francisco startup rework its structure piece by piece, shedding its altruistic, nonprofit, for the “benefit of all of humanity” roots in favor of a for-profit public benefit corporation — a move that makes an eventual IPO all the more feasible. CEO Sam Altman has openly said he’s “zero percent excited” about running a public company, but he also hasn’t been shy about OpenAI’s need for enormous amounts of capital as its models grow more powerful and expensive to run.
Despite remaining deep in the red and fending off periodic bankruptcy rumours, the company was most recently valued at $830 billion. A public debut could push that figure into trillion-dollar territory.
No concrete IPO plans have been announced, although sources have said it could happen in late-2026 or 2027. Some hints include the hiring of veteran finance executive Sarah Friar as CFO, who was instrumental in taking Square and NextDoor public, as well as OpenAI’s continued push to raise massive funding rounds. At the same time, the company is going to integrate ads in ChatGPT and its enterprise AI tools — a move meant to establish more durable revenue streams and demonstrate that there’s more to the business than just hype.
For OpenAI, going public wouldn’t just unlock new capital, it would also introduce a new level of accountability and scrutiny. The company would have to explicitly disclose the true economics of its massive cloud costs, which have been obscured by more than $1 trillion in circular financing deals. Investors would be watching closely to see if OpenAI can actually turn a profit, especially as quarterly reporting pressures clash with the company’s long-term research ambitions and stated safety priorities.
In a best-case scenario, public investments could accelerate acquisitions across chip design, AI infrastructure and energy — allowing OpenAI to control more of the AI supply chain while scaling toward its $1.4 trillion infrastructure roadmap to build out data centers over the next eight years.
Anthropic
Anthropic, the San Francisco-based AI lab behind the Claude chatbot, hinted at a potential IPO after a $10 billion funding round, which valued it at $350 billion. Signs of its public-market ambitions go as far back as 2024, when the company brought on Krishna Rao, veteran of Airbnb’s IPO, as chief financial officer. And momentum picked up in December 2025 when it hired Wilson Sonsini, the law firm that guided the IPOs of Google and LinkedIn, to begin legal and banking preparations.
Unlike many of its peers burning cash with no clear path to profitability, Anthropic said it’s aiming to break even by 2028. The company reportedly generated roughly $9 billion in annual recurring revenue in 2025, and is projected to make $20 billion this year and as much as $70 billion by 2028. More than anything, that growth trajectory helps make Anthropic look IPO-ready rather than perpetually experimental. Its enterprise push — including its Claude Code coding tool and new Cowork offering — has attracted millions of users and more than 300,000 corporate customers, including Microsoft, IBM, Deloitte and Salesforce, providing the kind of dependable, grown-up revenue stream public investors tend to look for.
With fresh capital in hand, Anthropic will likely speed up development of its Claude models, escalating the AI arms race against rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. At the same time, a public listing could give the company a bigger stage to promote its “constitutional” approach, effectively using the market to fund and normalize a more safety-oriented vision of AI development.
SpaceX
After years of resisting the idea, Elon Musk recently confirmed that SpaceX could go public in 2026, with reports claiming that he would like the IPO to be in June to coincide with both his birthday and the rare alignment of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter.
Originally, the plan was to wait until the rocket maker was “flying regularly to Mars.” But the pressure to expand compute capacity and build out massive data centers in order to stay competitive amid the AI gold rush seems to have changed the roadmap. Musk is now seeking new sources of capital to fund resource-intensive infrastructure projects, as well as broader AI ambitions, such as his newfound goal to launch these facilities into orbit. Theoretically, by blasting compute power into space, Musk hopes to bypass Earth's land and energy constraints, providing his AI venture, xAI, with a competitive edge through extraterrestrial data centers.
SpaceX is reportedly valued at $800 billion as of December 2025. A public offering could push that valuation up to $1.5 trillion — potentially making it the largest IPO in history.
A powerhouse consortium of finance firms, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, has reportedly been tapped to lead the offering. Musk further stoked investor interest in a post on his social media platform X, indicating that priority share allocations will be reserved for long-term shareholders of his electric vehicle company, Tesla.
Going public would also pull back the curtain on SpaceX’s finances, forcing the company to publicly disclose numbers it has long guarded — including the profitability of its satellite internet service Starlink, what it earns per customer and how much cash the Starship launch system burns each year. So while an IPO could solidify SpaceX’s lead in the aerospace industry, it could just as easily draw antitrust scrutiny and geopolitical pushback, potentially prompting governments to fund rival rocket and satellite programs to quell the perceived monopoly.
Canva
Canva, the company known for its generative AI design tools and ready-made templates, has signaled plans to go public after launching an employee stock sale that valued the business at about $42 billion. The Sydney-based company, founded by husband-and-wife team Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, also moved its parent company domicile to the United States to prepare for potential flotation, and hired IPO-veteran CFO Kelly Steckelberg, who championed Zoom’s public debut five years earlier. All that being said, there’s been no confirmation that Canva will actually go public.
Canva’s eight consecutive cash-flow-positive years also primes the company for eager investors. But letting them in would mean shifting its focus from simply growing its user base — which currently boasts 240 million active subscribers — to proving that it can extract more revenue from each user. That transition would likely accelerate Canva’s move toward professional-grade enterprise tools, intensifying its competition with other graphic design platforms like Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Designer and Google.
Strava
Strava, the fitness app that gamified outdoor exercise, is gearing up for the public markets after confidentially filing at a $2.2 billion valuation. Founded in 2009, the San Francisco-based company has reportedly been in talks with investment bank Goldman Sachs to prepare for an IPO in as early as spring 2026. The timing lines up with a thawing stock market as a whole, as steadier conditions and expected rate cuts attract sidelined tech companies back toward public listings.
Access to an influx of public capital would enable Strava to launch personalized, AI-generated coaching and “instant workout” training plans, as well as continue its acquisition streak. It would also increase the pressure to convert more of its 180 million users to pay for subscriptions. How well it pulls off that balance — growing revenue without losing the community feel that made it popular — could become a test case for other fitness and social-wellness platforms eyeing Wall Street as well.
Databricks
Databricks, an AI-powered data analytics and cloud platform that helps its clients build autonomous AI agents, has raised more than $4 billion in private funding rounds, reaching a $134 billion valuation. The company recently brought on Google and Salesforce veteran David Conte as CFO, and CEO Ali Ghodsi says it has been “IPO ready” since 2020, backed by finance leaders with deep IPO experience. Plus, the fact that it already generates predictable revenue from clients like Comcast, Shell and HSBC indicates it’s mature enough for Wall Street.
Going public would give Databricks the money it needs to scale its Lakehouse platform and accelerate AI model development for its 15,000-plus global customers. The company could also pursue rapid-fire acquisitions of specialized startups to close gaps in its AI offerings, ideally expanding storage for autonomous agents, while also escalating its battle with rivals like Snowflake and Google to become the definitive “source of truth” for the corporate world.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an IPO?
An IPO, or initial public offering, is when a private company sells shares of stock to the public for the first time. It allows the company to raise capital from public investors, provide liquidity for early shareholders and gain access to public markets. However, the company is also subject to stricter regulatory requirements and ongoing financial scrutiny.
Why do tech companies go public?
In general, companies pursue IPOs to raise large amounts of capital, provide liquidity for investors and employees and gain credibility and visibility in the market. For tech companies specifically, going public can fund costly infrastructure and research projects.
Which tech companies are expected to go public in 2026?
Some of the most anticipated IPOs in 2026 include OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX, Canva, Strava and Databricks. These companies span AI, cloud computing, social media and more, and many are backed by billions in private funding.
