Saying goodbye to 2025, a year of explosive growth in AI applications, and just entering 2026, Wall Street seems poised for an unprecedented capital feast. According to Fox Business and multiple media outlets...Reports allegeThe three tech giants known as the "Kings of Unicorns"—SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic—have all announced plans to launch in 2026.Initial Public Offering (IPO) PlanThe combined potential valuation of these three companies could exceed $3 trillion, a scale that could even surpass the spectacle of Saudi Aramco's IPO.
SpaceX: Starlink becomes a cash cow, target valuation of $1.5 trillion.
In this wave of IPOs, the one making the biggest splash is SpaceX, led by Elon Musk.
Despite Elon Musk's repeated statements that he does not want SpaceX to go public to avoid shareholder control, with the Starlink satellite network project contributing nearly 70% of the company's revenue by 2025 and already possessing stable profitability, calls for a spin-off or overall listing are growing louder.
Latest news indicates that SpaceX is targeting an IPO in the second half of 2026, with a target valuation of $1.5 trillion. This funding will be used for two bottomless pits of cash: accelerating the Starship Mars colonization program and Elon Musk's recently unveiled vision of a "space-based AI data center," attempting to move energy-intensive AI computing power into satellite orbit and utilize solar energy and vacuum cooling to solve energy problems.
OpenAI: Restructuring Completed, Aiming for IPO, Valuation to Reach $1 Trillion
Closely following behind is OpenAI, which has just completed its asset restructuring.
Officially obtained by the end of 2025SoftBank's massive investmentFurthermore, after transforming into a for-profit company, OpenAI is rumored to be planning to launch its product by the end of 2026 or early 2027.ListingThe valuation target is $1 trillion.
Although CEO Sam Altman has expressed “lack of interest” in running a publicly traded company, given the staggering capital expenditures (estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars) required to train GPT-6 and build the Stargate supercomputer, an IPO seems to be the only viable way to raise funds besides asking Microsoft and SoftBank for money.
Anthropic: Not wanting to be second best, rumored to be rushing to list his players first.
Compared to the high profile of the former two, Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI employees, may play the role of a "dark horse".
According to the Financial Times, Anthropic has hired the renowned law firm Wilson Sonsini to prepare for its IPO, potentially "overtaking" OpenAI and listing first in the first half of 2026.
Leveraging the excellent reputation of the Claude model among enterprises and the endorsement of both Amazon and Google, Anthropic's current private valuation has soared to $3000 billion. Market analysts believe that if Anthropic can go public first, it will be able to attract the first wave of funds eager to invest in pure AI targets, avoiding a direct clash with OpenAI.
Analysis: Is it "value realization" or "being left holding the bag"?
In my opinion, if these three giants do go public in 2026, it will be a watershed moment in the history of technology.
In the past few years, the high valuations of AI and space technology have mainly remained in the private market, funded by venture capital firms and tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon. Once they enter the public market, they will directly face rigorous scrutiny from retail and institutional investors regarding their "profitability".
SpaceX has proven its business model to be relatively stable with Starlink, but OpenAI and Anthropic are still in the "burning money for growth" stage. Have their valuations of hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars overdrawn their growth potential for the next decade?
