2026 Is Becoming the Biggest IPO Year Ever, Led by SpaceX

Wall Street's IPO machine is running hotter than it has in years. SpaceX just pulled off the biggest public offering in history, raising about 75 billion dollars at a 1.75 trillion dollar valuation, and OpenAI and Anthropic are lined up behind it. After a long drought, the IPO window is wide open, and the biggest names in tech are climbing through it.

This is a real regime change. For three years, high rates and shaky markets kept big private companies private, and the IPO pipeline stayed clogged. That broke in 2026. Through the end of May, US IPOs had already raised 34.2 billion dollars, up about 164 percent from the same point last year. Then June brought the capstone.

SpaceX listed on June 12 under the ticker SPCX, pricing at 135 dollars a share for 556.6 million shares, around 75 billion dollars raised. That is more than 2.5 times the previous record, Saudi Aramco's 29.4 billion in 2019, and it put SpaceX near the very top of public companies on day one at roughly 1.75 trillion. The debut wiped away a week of nerves about whether the market could even absorb a deal that size. It could.

Demand was the story. A 75 billion dollar offering clearing without breaking the market signaled that investor appetite for marquee tech is back, and that emboldened the rest of the pipeline. OpenAI has confidentially filed at an 852 billion dollar valuation after raising 122 billion privately, and Anthropic filed at 965 billion, both eyeing listings as soon as the fall. Scooter company Lime filed in May. When the biggest deal ever goes smoothly, everyone behind it moves up their timeline.

Watch what a wave like this does. A run of trillion-dollar listings pulls enormous capital into a handful of names and sets public benchmarks for the entire private AI and tech market, where valuations have run far ahead of revenue. It also hands early investors and employees a long-awaited exit, which shifts money around the system. The risk is the same as every hot IPO market. If a marquee debut stumbles, sentiment can turn fast and slam the window that just opened.

So after years of a frozen IPO market, 2026 is shaping up as one for the record books, and it is not done. SpaceX cleared the biggest deal in history, OpenAI and Anthropic are next, and the appetite is clearly there for now. The window is open. The question is how long it stays that way. For the companies still waiting, the clock is the thing to watch.