SpaceX Is Public. OpenAI and Anthropic Could Be Next.

Investor enthusiasm for AI has hit an all-time high. Cerebras went public in May, followed by SpaceX in June with the largest IPO ever. Anthropic and OpenAI have also confidentially submitted draft IPO filings, although neither has confirmed when its shares will begin trading. This article explains what these companies do, how valuable they have become, and why their IPOs matter.

Cerebras: specialized AI chips

Cerebras priced its IPO at $185 per share, initially raising $5.55 billion at a valuation of about $56 billion. After the underwriters exercised their full option, total gross proceeds reached approximately $6.38 billion. The stock opened at $350 and closed its first day at $311.07.

Cerebras builds AI supercomputers using a chip it designed, called the Wafer-Scale Engine 3 (WSE-3). Most computer chips are small, but this one is roughly the size of a dinner plate. By keeping everything on one giant chip instead of splitting work across many smaller ones, Cerebras says its system runs AI much faster than the standard chips made by companies like Nvidia.

SpaceX: rockets, Starlink, and AI

SpaceX completed the largest IPO in history in June 2026. It priced its shares at $135, began trading under the ticker SPCX, and raised approximately $85.7 billion after the underwriters exercised their full option. The IPO initially valued the company at $1.77 trillion.

The shares initially surged, pushing SpaceX's market value above $2 trillion. By mid-July, however, the stock had fallen back below its $135 IPO price, showing how volatile even the most anticipated AI-related listings can be.

One of the most interesting parts of the SpaceX IPO story is not Mars: it is AI data centers. In February 2026, SpaceX acquired xAI in a deal that reportedly valued SpaceX at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion. That gave SpaceX control of xAI's Colossus AI data-center infrastructure, which has quickly become a major part of the IPO narrative. Anthropic has signed agreements to use compute capacity across Colossus and Colossus II, covering approximately 325,000 Nvidia GPUs. SpaceX's IPO filing says Anthropic will pay $1.25 billion per month through May 2029, although either company can terminate the agreements with 90 days' notice.

Below is how SpaceX framed its own market opportunity:

• Space, the original business, is the smallest piece at $370 billion.
• Connectivity, mostly Starlink broadband and mobile, adds up to about $1.6 trillion.
• AI is $26.5 trillion, and within that, enterprise applications alone account for $22.7 trillion.

These are total addressable market figures, which are inherently aspirational. But the framing gives us insights on how SpaceX positioned itself for this IPO.

OpenAI: ChatGPT

OpenAI confidentially submitted its draft IPO filing to the SEC on June 8, 2026. The filing gives OpenAI the option to go public, but the company says it has not decided on the timing and may remain private for some time. Reports have suggested it could seek a valuation of up to $1 trillion.

OpenAI says it is now generating $2 billion in revenue per month. ChatGPT has more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million subscribers, while enterprise products account for more than 40% of revenue. OpenAI's APIs process more than 15 billion tokens per minute, and Codex has more than 2 million weekly users.

Anthropic: Claude

Anthropic confidentially submitted its draft IPO filing on June 1, moving slightly ahead of OpenAI in the race to reach public markets. The company has not announced the size, price, or timing of the offering. In late May, Anthropic raised $65 billion at a post-money valuation of $965 billion, more than double its February valuation of $380 billion.

Anthropic says its annualized revenue run rate crossed $47 billion in May, helping explain why its private valuation rose so quickly.

Final thoughts

SpaceX has already completed the largest IPO in history. OpenAI and Anthropic, with latest private valuations of $852 billion and $965 billion, have both taken the first formal step toward following it. If both reach public markets, the three companies would represent approximately $3.6 trillion in combined value at their most recent valuations. More importantly, 2026 could become the year when the AI industry's biggest private companies began facing the scrutiny and expectations of public investors.