The pending IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, along with SpaceX’s recent public market debut, are signaling a historic shift in the tech industry. A report from NCVA-Pitchbook Venture Monitor highlights that these exits could surpass the total value of all U.S. venture capital-backed IPOs since 2000. SpaceX alone has already achieved a $1.77 trillion valuation, and with Anthropic and OpenAI expected to join the public markets, the combined value could exceed $4 trillion. This dwarfs the $70 billion in U.S.-based IPO proceeds recorded last year.
The report notes that the valuation measures include the value created by these companies rather than just liquid cash. It also excludes non-U.S. firms like Alibaba, and does not account for companies that launched publicly before becoming major tech players, such as Google, Tesla, and Meta. The scale of the current IPOs, particularly in AI, is unprecedented, with the capital-intensive nature of AI training pushing labs to raise significant funds and inflate valuations.
The report underscores that the financial infrastructure is being stretched to its limits by the sheer size of these public offerings. While the IPOs of Google, Tesla, and Meta were landmark events in their time, the current wave of exits is setting a new benchmark for value creation in the tech sector.
Source: techcrunch
