There are over 1,300 privately held “unicorns.”
These are privately-held tech companies with valuations over $1 billion. And the total combined value of these companies could exceed $6 trillion.
The IPO market has been slow in recent years. However, 2026 could mark a turning point as several Mega IPOs prepare to go public. Top contenders include SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic among others.
It’s not just the Mega IPOs that matter.
A new IPO wave could be sparked by activity from any of the top private companies valued above $50 billion.
The following chart shows total IPO activity from 2000 – 2026. You’ll notice that there was a massive jump in 2021. That included an increase in conventional IPOs in the Covid boom – plus a significant number of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) going public.
Let’s take a look at the top 10 most valuable private companies in the U.S. Each of these companies is at a stage where they could choose to list shares on the NYSE or NASDAQ.
Canva: $65 billion
Ramp: $92 billion
Anduril $110 billion
Waymo: $126 billion
Databricks: $134 billion
Stripe: $140 billion
Bytedance / Tiktok: $480 billion
Anthropic: $380 billion
OpenAI: $850 billion
Rumors suggest that a pair of AI giants will go public in late 2026. Those companies would be OpenAI and Anthropic.
SpaceX is expected to be the first significant IPO of the year. Elon Musk says he wants the company to start trading before July. And the space leader has already hired investment bankers to prepare for a listing.
Ian Wyatt