IPOs

Wall Street’s IPO Drought: Everyone Is Waiting for Anthropic

co-produced by AI04. October 2026, 07:59

The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. © David Vives / Unsplash

A record year for listings, yet nobody wants to go public anymore: On Wall Street, the stream of new offerings has slowed to a trickle. In the very quarter that was supposed to bring a bumper crop of I.P.O.s, companies are shelving their plans one after another, The Financial Times reports. Investors only have eyes for one company: Anthropic. Some candidates are deliberately holding back because it is hard to get any attention next to the A.I. company’s listing, according to Bloomberg. Renaissance Capital says not a single U.S. I.P.O. is scheduled for the coming week; possible candidates include the British data center operator Nscale.

Who Is Putting Their Listing on Hold

The list of canceled or postponed I.P.O.s keeps growing:

EG Group: The gas station operator had hoped to raise about $1 billion in New York at a valuation of $9 billion (about 7.7 billion euros). The listing has now been pushed into 2027, while buyers such as the infrastructure investor Stonepeak have shown interest in the business.
Oura: The smart ring maker has shelved its I.P.O. for now, citing “uncertainty in the I.P.O. market.”
SB Energy: The SoftBank-backed data center company was targeting a valuation of about $50 billion (about 43 billion euros) despite not having a single facility in operation.
Holtec and Bamboo Insurance: The nuclear energy group and the insurer have also paused their plans.

The two big A.I. listings are also taking their time. Anthropic, whose backers hope for a valuation above $2 trillion (about 1.7 trillion euros), is now expected to go public in mid-November after the U.S. midterm elections, later than anticipated. OpenAI has pushed its I.P.O. to 2027.

First the Pop, Then the Drop

Investment bankers have had a stellar year so far, largely thanks to SpaceX’s I.P.O. in June, which raised a record $86 billion (about 74 billion euros). But worries about a downturn in the A.I. sector and public opposition to data centers are now growing. According to one banker, many smaller I.P.O.s are falling through because of rising skepticism about lofty valuations for companies tied to the A.I. boom.

The problem shows after the first day of trading. This year’s tech listings are on average about 23 percent below their first-day price, according to BCA Research. Even SpaceX jumped at its debut and then gave up those gains in the following weeks. That means the biggest winners are early backers sitting on huge paper gains, while new shareholders often lose out. Still, the picture is not all bleak: The Renaissance Capital I.P.O. index, which tracks newly listed U.S. companies, is up 16.4 percent this year, ahead of the S&P 500 at 13 percent.

Volatile oil prices driven by the war in Iran and a global sell-off in government bonds add to the caution. Yet market turbulence is not an entirely convincing explanation: The S&P 500 is trading near its record high, and the Vix volatility index is low. That is exactly the environment in which banks usually want to bring their clients to market. “What makes it especially surprising is the Nasdaq just hit a record high, it’s not like there’s a big market downturn,” Jay Ritter, an I.P.O. researcher at the University of Florida, told Bloomberg. West Riggs, head of equity capital markets at Truist, says companies are “simply being patient and waiting for the right window.”

Europe and Asia Are Slowing Down, Too

The caution is spreading to other markets. In Europe, the listing plans of Ennismore, the Accor-backed boutique hotel group eyeing New York, and of Hotel Investment Partners, a Spanish hotel group owned by Blackstone that could be valued at more than 6 billion euros, may be delayed again. In London, the bookseller Waterstones and the travel company Loveholidays have postponed their listings. Many candidates planned for this year are slipping into 2027. In Asia, AS Watson, whose brands include the British chains Superdrug and Savers as well as Rossmann in Germany, has pushed its $30 billion (about 26 billion euros) dual listing in London and Hong Kong into next year because of pending approvals in China.

The overall numbers still look strong. According to the latest EY I.P.O. Barometer, 367 companies went public worldwide in the third quarter, barely fewer than a year earlier. Proceeds, however, rose 79 percent to $93.3 billion (about 80 billion euros). Since the start of the year, they add up to a record $287.5 billion (about 246 billion euros). That is driven by a handful of mega deals such as the $26.5 billion Nasdaq listing of the memory chip maker SK Hynix. In the United States, only 24 companies went public in the third quarter, down from 65 a year earlier. In Europe, by contrast, the number rose from 24 to 45. “The high issuance volumes must not hide the fact that the recovery of the I.P.O. market has not yet reached the broader market,” said Martina Geisler, head of I.P.O. services at EY Austria.

Austria: Four Newcomers and a Record for the ATX

For Austria, the picture is comparatively upbeat. The Vienna Stock Exchange has welcomed four new listings this year, most recently Biogena from Salzburg, which started trading in September in the direct market plus segment. Beforehand, the micronutrient maker had raised almost 18 million euros from more than 2,300 new shareholders. Earlier, Emerald Horizon, FIT Group and K2G Holding joined the Vienna exchange. Two Austrian companies also went public abroad: ASTA Energy in Frankfurt in January and the gas engine maker Innio Jenbacher on the Nasdaq in June.

There was, however, no classic I.P.O. on the regulated market in the third quarter. Tailwinds would be plentiful: The ATX total return index hit a new all-time high at the end of September and is up more than 30 percent this year. What is needed now for a lasting revival is “a well-prepared pipeline of companies ready for the stock market,” Ms. Geisler said.