After years of fewer initial public offerings, or IPOs, than normal, the number of companies going public is on the rise, thanks in part to the debut of SpaceX on June 12.
Less than a week after its record-setting IPO, the stock has gained 24%, making SpaceX — which includes satellite broadband provider Starlink, xAI and rocket launch services — the fifth largest publicly traded company on Earth and paving the way for a flurry of other companies to follow suit later this year.
The uptick comes after a notable decline in the number of IPOs over the past several years. After a record 1,035 companies went public in 2021, just 181 held IPOs in 2022, marking a nearly 83% year-over-year decrease. In 2023, that number fell to just 154 IPOs — the lowest since 2016.
But with 171 public listings so far this year, IPOs have taken center stage.
“Since the big pullback in 2022 and ’23, I think [a successful SpaceX IPO] could definitely open the door,” Jennifer Horton, executive vice president at CapWealth, previously told Money.
With data from prediction markets as well as the Nasdaq’s IPO calendar supporting that notion, the following four companies could hold public listings by the end of 2026 as they aim to replicate SpaceX’s successful launch.
OpenAI could be the next mega-cap company to IPO
OpenAI, the company behind the large language model (LLM) ChatGPT, announced on June 8 that it had confidentially filed Form S-1 — the legal document required to pursue a public offering — with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC.
In March, the company closed a $122 billion funding round that saw its valuation rise to $852 billion. For context, a market cap in that area would make OpenAI the 20th largest publicly traded company upon its debut.
Like SpaceX, OpenAI is currently operating at a net loss that analysts expect to reach $14 billion by the end of 2026. By comparison, SpaceX posted a nearly $5 billion net loss in 2025. OpenAI is projected to reach profitability around 2029, but because the company is private and its S-1 hasn’t yet been made publicly available, prospective investors will have to wait to evaluate financial disclosures.
However, the company is capitalizing on the surging popularity of its flagship product. On June 2, Reuters reported that ChatGPT reached 1 billion monthly active users, or MAUs, in May. The company reached that milestone in fewer than three years, faster than many other popular apps, including Google Maps, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
According to a press release, the LLM provider has not decided on the timing of its IPO. However, prediction market Kalshi currently pins the odds of OpenAI’s public debut in 2026 at 70%.
Anthropic has a higher valuation but isn’t rushing to go public
A direct competitor to OpenAI, Anthropic is also eyeing a potential 2026 IPO. The company, which develops LLMs and advanced AI assistants — the most popular of which are in the Claude family of models — filed its S-1 on June 1.
In a press release, Anthropic hedged against specific expectations, stating that the S-1 filing “gives us the option to go public after the SEC completes its review… [but] the proposed initial public offering will depend on market conditions and other factors.”
However, the company is proceeding cautiously. Anthropic is structured as a public benefit corporation — a for-profit entity legally required to balance its financial goals with positive social impacts — and its CEO, Dario Amodei, has been vocal about thoroughly assessing the risks that AI models present before rushing to them to market.
“The onus is on us,” Amodei told ABC on June 11, ahead of SpaceX’s IPO. “The government has to do its part as well… but the onus primarily falls on us.”
On May 28, Anthropic closed a funding round that raised $65 billion, bringing its valuation to $965 billion, or 13% higher than Sam Altman-led OpenAI. The company has fewer MAUs than its competitor, with Claude currently seeing 56 million monthly users. But Reuters reports that Claude has seen year-over-year MAU growth of about 640%, which has easily outpaced ChatGPT’s growth of 62%.
Kalshi currently pins the likelihood of an Anthropic IPO occurring before Nov. 1 at 85%.
Beyond AI: Kraken and Discord could also IPO in 2026
While AI firms and their impending IPOs continue to dominate the news cycle, a handful of under-the-radar companies operating in other industries are eyeing public debuts this year. According to TradingView, Kraken and Discord are also positioned to hold IPOs this fall. The platform has assigned tentative debut dates for those three companies on Oct. 8 and Oct. 15, respectively.
A major centralized crypto exchange, Kraken was founded in 2011 — nearly a full year before Coinbase, its major competitor. The company has remained private, while Coinbase had its IPO in April 2021.
With the digital asset market in the midst of a “crypto winter,” the prices of major coins bitcoin and ether are down 48% and 64%, respectively, from their all-time highs. Kraken paused its plans for an IPO due to the bear market despite confidentially filing its S-1 with the SEC in November 2025. During that time, the crypto exchange’s valuation has fallen from $20 billion in November to approximately $13.3 billion.
After years of speculation, Discord filed its S-1 on Jan. 6, setting the stage for its IPO. The app and communication platform was originally designed for gamers but has since expanded to an array of online communities. It provides virtual spaces, or “servers,” that users can create or join depending on their interests.
One challenge Discord will face before its potential 2026 debut is restoring its valuation. The company’s last funding round in 2021 valued it at more than $15 billion, but today its estimated value is less than half of that.
Discord has an estimated 260 million MAUs and operates on a freemium model, lowering the barrier to entry but charging for premium subscriptions (Discord Nitro), server boosts, game sales commissions and brand partnerships.
