What the SpaceX I.P.O. Means for OpenAI and Anthropic
What the SpaceX I.P.O. Means for OpenAI and Anthropic
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/12/technology/spacex-ipo-openai-anthropic.html
Publish Date: 2026-06-12 18:40:00
Source Domain: www.nytimes.com
Wall Street celebrated the arrival of the largest initial public offering in its history with SpaceX on Friday. But after SpaceX’s first day of trading ends, a pair of start-ups in San Francisco will be watching the share price of Elon Musk’s rocket company closely.
OpenAI and Anthropic, two of the leaders in artificial intelligence, have also announced their intentions to go public as soon as this year. While A.I. is only one component of SpaceX’s business, how SpaceX fares among investors will be a crucial gauge of how the average person feels about investing in the public offerings of other A.I. companies that are believed to be far from profitable.
Here are three things these companies are most likely considering:
Is there a big appetite for big I.P.O.s?
The market for I.P.O.s has been choppy for 10 years, as some of the highest-profile tech companies have been able to hold off going public for longer because of their seemingly endless ability to raise private capital.
But SpaceX’s debut may kick off a blockbuster year for tech companies heading to Wall Street. Anthropic and OpenAI will watch how SpaceX trades over the next few months to see if the markets are hungry for more shares of tech companies.
The total value of SpaceX shares was inching toward $2 trillion on Friday, easily making it the biggest I.P.O. ever. But if OpenAI and Anthropic go public, they will not be far behind. Both are expected to be worth a little under $1 trillion.
Bankers always find it difficult to time an I.P.O. “correctly,” especially lately, given instability in the global economy. But SpaceX’s pop on Day 1 could offer hope that there is plenty of investment interest to go around.
Are people worried about profits?
Everyday investors were willing to stomach money-losing tech companies in previous booms — until they weren’t. The dot-com boom of the 1990s was followed by a brutal bust for tech stocks.
A similar pattern followed another generation of tech companies that went…
