You know IPOs are back when everyone from an e-scooter startup to the parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts is announcing plans to go public.

But perhaps the best example of a buzzy IPO market is Enhanced Games, an Olympics-style international athletic competition where performance-enhancing drugs are encouraged. Shares jumped over 20% on the company’s first day of trading after a SPAC merger last week.

Zoom out: For years, the IPO pipeline was frozen thanks to higher interest rates and ongoing market volatility. But over the past year, the tech sector has embraced lax regulation and, taking a cue from investors, is shrugging off red flags about the economy and moving full-steam ahead. Major IPO filings like SpaceX may be the flashiest, but a slew of others show just how hungry investors are for new investment options.

The chips are down…to go public

This is about to be a busy week for new listings, and it all starts with Cerebras Systems. The AI chipmaker just signed a major contract with OpenAI in December, and since the company filed for an IPO earlier this month, it’s become a highly anticipated debut.

• When the company first filed, it planned to sell 28 million shares at a price between $115 and $125. But thanks to booming demand, Cerebras just upped its IPO offering to 30 million shares priced between $150 and $160.
• That means the company is now aiming to raise $4.8 billion in the IPO, up from its previous $3.5 billion, making it the biggest IPO of the year so far.

What makes Cerebras stand out in a market already saturated by AI chip stocks is that it is thinking bigger. Essentially, its Wafer Scale Engine 3 chip is a giant, multi-purpose chip—sort of like a 3-in-1 shampoo, conditioner, and body wash for AI. The drawback is that this kind of chip better supports smaller AI models. But that market seems to be more than enough to support the company’s business: Its revenue grew 76% last year.

All things AI

It isn’t just chipmakers—the AI boom is boosting demand for IPOs across the markets, from energy to asset management.

Geothermal power company Fervo Energy, which is expected to debut this week, said today it is upsizing its IPO, now seeking a valuation of $7.4 billion, up from its previous goal of $6.5 billion. The reason, of course, is the surge in investor excitement about the debut, which will give the retail crowd another opportunity to gain exposure to the industry powering AI datacenters.

Then there’s Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust, which filed for an IPO last week and is looking to raise up to $1.75 billion. Unlike the other IPOs above, this isn’t a buzzy new startup, but the datacenter acquisition arm of asset management behemoth Blackstone. The plan is for the new venture to buy already existing data centers, giving traders the chance to indirectly make a play on the AI hardware expansion.

With this much excitement about IPOs, we have some news: The Brew Markets Datacenter Co. will be looking to make the jump into public markets shortly.—LB

🟢 What’s up

• Corning rose 10.92% after Bank of America added the stock to its top US investment ideas list, extending gains tied to its expanding AI partnership with Nvidia.
• Qualcomm climbed 8.42% to a new 52-week high as investors bet on its growing AI, automotive, and datacenter businesses.
• Lumentum gained 16.52% after securing a spot in the Nasdaq 100, replacing CoStar Group later this month.
• Monday.com jumped 6.72% after beating earnings and revenue expectations, helped by 24% year over year growth tied to its AI platform rollout.
• Sony rose 5.66% after announcing a joint venture with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to develop image sensors.
• Circle Internet Group rose 15.91% after reporting 20% revenue growth and a 28% increase in USDC circulation, highlighting continued stablecoin adoption despite a volatile crypto market.

What’s down

• The Trade Desk fell 6.68% after HSBC downgraded the stock on concerns around competition, agency relationships, and its AI advertising strategy.
• Wendy's dropped 7.4% after JPMorgan Chase cut its rating, citing slowing same-store sales and uncertainty around the company’s direction.
• Chemicals company Mosaic tumbled 1.82% after posting a surprise loss and cutting capital spending amid soaring raw material costs tied to geopolitical tensions.
• Moderna reversed earlier gains and fell 2.7% after health officials downplayed the risk of another pandemic.
• Target slipped 5.44% as analysts raised concerns about CEO Michael Fiddelke’s ability to revive growth.

The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, inflation remains high, and Nintendo just hiked the price of the Switch 2. But despite all this terrible news, the market can’t stop rallying—and Wall Street is sprinting to catch up.

Over the weekend we got a bunch of new forecasts for everything from the S&P 500 to the US economy. Here’s what the pros are saying about what happens next:

• Yardeni Research boosted its S&P 500 price target for 2026 from 7,700 up to 8,250, making it the highest target on Wall Street. Founder Ed Yardeni cited increasing year over year growth in companies’ forward revenue per share and earnings per share, and he expects profit margins to continue expanding this year.
• RBC Capital Markets boosted its 12-month S&P 500 target from 7,750 to 7,900, and perhaps even to 8,100. Analysts there also noted strong earnings growth, and they were particularly pleased to see that the gains of the AI trade are broadening beyond just the usual Mag 7 stocks.
• Over on the Nasdaq, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives thinks the tech-heavy index can rise to 30,000 over the next year. He believes it will be propelled higher by the “memory super-cycle,” predicting that the latest winners of the AI trade will keep climbing.
• Finally, we got one slightly more temperate forecast: Goldman Sachs Chief Economist Jan Hatzius said the chances of a US recession are down from 30% to 25%. He says upheaval in the Middle East hasn’t been as bad as predicted, and he expects the Strait of Hormuz to reopen by June.

That last one seems like the boldest call of all, given today’s news that the ceasefire “is on life support.” Here’s hoping Hatzius (and everybody else) gets it right.—MR

For soccer fans still hoping to get in on the action, the good news is the “best available” tickets to the World Cup final are still up for grabs. The bad news is they cost roughly the same as a 2026 Ford Mustang: $32,970.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino defended the eye-watering prices, arguing that resale is legal in the US and that underpricing tickets would simply hand profits to scalpers. He’s not wrong: FIFA’s resale marketplace currently lists four World Cup final tickets for just under $2.3 million each.

World cup, world economy

Soccer fans are getting squeezed no matter who they’re buying from, but the US economy is poised to get a major boost.

Bank of America estimates that the 2026 World Cup will engage 75% of the world’s population, while drawing 6.5 million attendees across the tournament—almost double the previous record. Economically, that could translate into roughly $41 billion added to global GDP, and support more than 800,000 jobs worldwide, including around 185,000 in the US. Historically, host nations have also seen an average 0.4 percentage-point boost in GDP growth in the year following the event.

Zooming out, the business of sports is becoming an economic force in its own right: The industry generated about $2.3 trillion in revenue globally in 2025—large enough to rank as the world’s 10th-largest economy—and is projected to grow to $3.7 trillion by 2030.

The winners off the pitch

While the broader economy stands to benefit, parts of the market could also surge as the World Cup frenzy creates winners far beyond the soccer pitch.

Analysts at Bank of America highlighted airlines as a key beneficiary of the tournament, noting that the combined air miles traveled by fans could total roughly three times the distance from Earth to the edge of the solar system. The bank also pointed to beverages, sportswear, restaurants, broadcasters, social media platforms, and online betting companies as industries positioned to cash in on the tournament-driven spending surge.

Goldman Sachs echoed that view, spotlighting several companies it believes are especially well-positioned, including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Adidas, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hyatt Hotels, and Airbnb. Over at JPMorgan, analysts underscored how higher advertising spending around the games will benefit big players like Meta and Alphabet.

Somewhere between the $33,000 tickets, packed flights, and sponsorship deals, the World Cup has become a whole economy of its own. For investors, that means the beautiful game is also shaping up to be a beautiful opportunity.—SY

• Meet the JPMorgan banker behind the bizarre sexual assault lawsuit that everyone’s talking about.
• General Motors Co. plans to cut hundreds of workers in its IT department.
• OpenAI opened the door for its employees to sell up to $30 million in shares—resulting in 600 employees making a collective $6.6 billion.
• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is taking the stand this week in the Elon Musk versus OpenAI trial.
• Speaking of OpenAI, the company’s taking a page out of Anthropic’s playbook and starting up its own consulting company.
• The SEC’s lawsuit against the founder of Citron Research threatens the future of the entire short-selling industry.
• Take a deep dive into Jerome Powell’s legacy.

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Economic reports: All eyes are on inflation as the April CPI report arrives, with economists anticipating that headline inflation will climb 3.4% year over year, while core CPI is expected to rise 2.7%. And if you’ve got the time, keep an eye out for the NFIB small business optimism index.

Earnings announcements: Siemens Energy, Bayer, Vodafone, Venture Global, On Holding, Under Armour, eToro, and Oklo get things started in what will be a pretty quiet few days of earnings, with only 1% of the S&P 500 reporting this week.

Everything else: Lights, camera, action—the Cannes Film Festival begins.