According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Wall Street bankers predict a robust pipeline of IPOs and other equity offerings through the remainder of 2026.
- Arnaud Blanchard, co-head of global ECM at Morgan Stanley, said IPO activity could accelerate in the third quarter.
- JPMorgan Chase’s global head of private capital advisory and solutions, Keith Canton, expects a dozen jumbo IPOs in the second half of 2026, with companies raising $1 billion or more.
- Morgan Stanley said the IPO pipeline is now increasingly dominated by larger, later-stage companies that spent years raising private capital before turning to public markets.
The U.S. IPO market is on pace for its strongest year since the pandemic-era listing frenzy, with Wall Street expecting the momentum to continue into the second half of 2026.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg, companies going public this year have raised a record $251 billion through June 26, 2026, with Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (SPCX) record-breaking IPO and Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG, GOOGL) follow-on share sale helping push issuance above the previous midyear record set in 2021.
SpaceX initially raised $75 billion through its IPO earlier this month. After underwriters exercised their overallotment option, the total proceeds increased to $85.7 billion. Alphabet announced a proposed equity offering to raise $80 billion to fund its AI buildout.
The report adds that this has prompted Wall Street bankers to predict a robust pipeline of IPOs and other equity offerings through the remainder of 2026.
“There’s a lot of activity across the ecosystem and across different products. It’s really the first time you could say that since 2021,” said Will Connolly, co-head of equity capital markets in the Americas at Goldman Sachs.
IPO Activity Expected To Accelerate
Arnaud Blanchard, co-head of global ECM at Morgan Stanley, said IPO activity could accelerate in the third quarter (Q3), with the investment bank gearing up for a busy period, according to the report.
“While Q4 is typically a constructive window, we could see some volatility around the midterm elections and so second half activity is likely to be front-loaded into Q3,” Blanchard said.
The report stated that 11 companies that went public this year raised more than $1 billion through IPOs, with investors betting on firms seen as benefiting from the massive AI infrastructure buildout.
JPMorgan Chase’s global head of private capital advisory and solutions, Keith Canton, expects a dozen jumbo IPOs in the second half of 2026, with companies raising $1 billion or more.
“Some of their companies are very high quality and very large, so they may have outgrown M&A as an option, so I’d expect to see some of them start to come to the public market,” he added.
Anthropic and OpenAI have both filed confidentially for an IPO, with the Claude developer expected to go public later this year.
Morgan Stanley Explains What's Driving The New IPO Cycle
Morgan Stanley said the IPO pipeline is now increasingly dominated by larger, later-stage companies that spent years raising private capital before turning to public markets, resulting in bigger offerings and more mature businesses than in previous IPO cycles.
The firm also added that the demand is extending well beyond AI software companies to the broader infrastructure ecosystem supporting the technology, including data centers, power infrastructure, industrial components, and aerospace. It also identified aerospace, defense, and space-related technologies as another major long-term theme attracting investor interest.
Morgan Stanley said sponsor-backed companies are expected to remain a meaningful source of IPO activity as private equity firms look to exit mature portfolio companies.
Beyond private equity, Morgan Stanley also said retail investors are becoming increasingly important participants in IPOs. According to the bank, founders are considering retail participation earlier in the listing process, including through directed share programs and broader share allocations.
The Renaissance IPO ETF (IPO) is up 27% over the past 12 months.
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