Which AI-related companies are likely to hold initial public offerings this year?
We asked Seeking Alpha analysts Eugenio Catone and Donovan Jones which ones they thought might go public.
Eugenio Catone: The most-awaited IPO is definitely that of OpenAI (OPENAI). According to Reuters, this IPO has the potential to be one of the biggest ever, as its valuation could reach $1T. However, exactly when OpenAI will go public is still unknown. Some sources talk about late 2026; others say early 2027. What we do know is that CEO Sam Altman doesn’t seem very excited about a potential listing, remarking, “In some ways I think it’d be really annoying.”
Another relevant mention is Anthropic (ANTHRO), developer of the Claude AI models, and its valuation has been skyrocketing. According to The Wall Street Journal, Anthropic plans to raise $10B at a valuation of $350B, but three months ago it was valued at $183B and nine months ago at “just” $61.5B. The Financial Times reported that an IPO in 2026 is very likely.
A third potential IPO candidate for 2026 is xAI (X.AI), which also owns X and is controlled by Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk. According to a recent financing round, xAI’s valuation should be about $230B; however, it is the most uncertain IPO among the three discussed so far. Musk’s SpaceX (SPACE) is more likely to be listed first.
Donovan Jones: The 2026 U.S. IPO market appears likely to build on 2025’s sequential growth in both the number of IPOs and gross proceeds.
Foundational AI model developer Anthropic (ANTHRO) has apparently hired legal counsel for a potential 2026 offering. If market conditions are strong, Databricks may choose to float its shares, although its most recent private market valuation of $134M in 2025 is no small hurdle to overcome.
Chipmaker Cerebras Systems (CBRS), which originally filed to go public in 2024, may elect to move forward in 2026, especially in the wake of Nvidia’s (NVDA) $20B deal with Cerebras competitor Groq.
Dataiku, an enterprise software provider that has created a universal AI platform of sorts that enables developers to easily manage the “last mile” of AI elements, has reportedly engaged Citigroup (C) and Morgan Stanley (MS) for an IPO in the first half of 2026.
OpenAI (OPENAI) still has access to plentiful private market capital at apparently reasonable valuations, so I don’t expect them to go through the time-consuming and distracting IPO process in 2026, unless valuations are too tempting to ignore.
SpaceX (SPACE), which owns Starlink (STRLK) and is controlled by Elon Musk, is reportedly considering an IPO in mid-2026 at a valuation of $1.5T to raise $30B to build an orbiting AI data center. Musk has said those reports are “accurate,” although plans for such a large undertaking are likely still in the early stages, including the investment bank “bake-off,” in which Morgan Stanley (MS) may be in the leading competitive position.