Three of the most talked-about companies on the planet – SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic – are preparing to list on public stock markets (known as an initial public offering, or) within the space of a few months.  For the first time, the businesses behind the AI tools most of us use most commonly, like Grok, Claude and ChatGPT, will be easy to invest in on global markets.

So should you pile in?

The wave that’s coming

The IPO pipeline for 2026 is looking busy. Investment bankers, who run stock market flotations, are rubbing their hands in anticipation.

Space Exploration Technologies is targeting a June listing on Nasdaq at a valuation of up to $2 trillion. That makes it potentially the largest IPO in history. The deal is said to be aiming to raise $75 billion. This is around three times the largest amount raised previously in an IPO.  What’s more, the plan is to allocate around 30% of the available stock for sale to retail investors.

Together, if all three businesses list this year, the combined fundraising could approach $200 billion, a sum that dwarfs anything the IPO market has seen before.

And there’s more around the corner.  These three planned IPOs are unlikely to be the last in 2026. Several other big businesses are rumoured to be considering floating on public markets, including Stripe and Revolut – names that are well-known to most Irish investors.

These aren’t small companies anymore

It’s tempting to think of these businesses as exciting startup stories. But the numbers involved are already extraordinary. SpaceX (which is still loss-making) generated $18.7 billion in revenue in 2025, with its Starlink satellite broadband service accounting for over 60% of that.

OpenAI is generating $2 billion in monthly sales. And Anthropic has gone from a $9 billion annual run rate of sales at the end of 2025 to a reported $30 billion run rate by April 2026 — a more than threefold increase in under six months.

These are not pre-revenue moonshots. They are large, fast-growing businesses entering public markets at valuations that put them among the largest companies in the world.

You’ll own these businesses anyway

One consequence of that is that all three companies are likely to enter the S&P 500 index of top US companies shortly after they float.

That means most people invested in a diversified global equity fund will wind up owning a piece of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

Where will $200 billion come from?

The combined fundraising from these three IPOs could approach $200 billion. That is an enormous amount of cash to be found, and it has to come from somewhere.

In practice, most of the money will shift within the equity market rather than entering it fresh. Large institutional investors such as pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and insurance companies will reallocate from existing holdings to participate in these offerings. Some retail investors will trim positions elsewhere to buy in.  For Irish investors in equity funds, this will mostly happen within their fund. There may be some selling of existing AI-related names like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Alphabet as investors make room for the new listings.

Should you invest?

For most investors, the answer is: you probably already have some exposure to the trends driving these businesses, and that’s likely enough.

These are genuinely exciting businesses, but they are coming to market at high valuations. For example SpaceX is targeting a valuation of almost 100 times its 2025 sales.

For investors who do want specific exposure to the space, or to the AI growth story, the most sensible approach is through a fund.

Investors who moved early have already done well

If you invested in space-focused funds earlier this year, you’ve already benefited from much of this excitement. The VanEck Space Innovators fund, which we  highlighted in January for space exposure — has returned 74% year-to-date. The Seraphim Space Investment Trust, which we also covered, has seen its share price more than double from the start of the year, and has quadrupled over the last four years.

SpaceX alone accounts for around 18% of one of our long-time favourite technology funds, Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust.  And Anthropic represents 2.6% of this fund. Through funds like this, many investors with diversified global tech exposure are already participating in this story.

The point is this: if you hold a broad global technology fund, or a space-focused fund, you likely have substantial exposure to these trends.  And as the businesses mature, there’s a good chance that valuation growth slows from here.

If you do plan direct investment at IPO in names like these, for most people it should represent a small, considered allocation — not a core holding. High valuations, governance structures that give founders outsized control, and the inherent unpredictability of technology and AI competition all mean the path from here is unlikely to be smooth.