The return of the IPO

Wall Street just got a Discord invite.

Discord has confidentially filed for an IPO, according to reports, and is working with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan as lead advisers.

Founded in 2015, Discord offers voice, video, and text chat tools, and now has more than 200 million monthly active users, making it one of the largest standalone social platforms not yet public.

A 2021 private round pegged the company’s valuation at roughly $15 billion, shortly after it passed on a $12 billion takeover bid from Microsoft.

The IPO watchlist

Discord’s move puts the spotlight back on long-awaited IPO candidates that could debut at massive valuations, as the capital demands of AI growth push companies toward public markets. Here are some of the biggest names investors are watching in 2026:

• ChatGPT maker OpenAI was valued at $500 billion in October and is reportedly targeting a $1 trillion valuation. The company is still operating at a loss, and with $1.4 trillion in long-term commitments, an IPO would give OpenAI access to public capital to fund its massive computing and infrastructure needs.
• Anthropic, the creator of Claude, is increasingly positioned as the alternative to OpenAI, with users favoring it for coding, research, and education. A November funding round reportedly valued the company as high as $350 billion, backed by Nvidia and Microsoft. “This is the enterprise safety hedge, with a much lower valuation than OpenAI and a narrative not about AGI magic but enterprise reliability and safety,” Nick Patience, AI coverage lead at The Futurum Group, told CNBC.
• SpaceX is shooting for the stars, and has floated ambitions that could include supporting data centers in orbit. Elon Musk has called reports of a 2026 IPO “accurate,” and if it happens, SpaceX could become the largest IPO ever. The company was valued near $800 billion in a December secondary share sale, with upside estimates reaching $1.5 trillion, a level supported by its lack of clear competition.

Not a flood, yet

While a handful of companies may hit the public markets this year, many startups are still choosing to stay private longer.

US venture-capital fundraising dropped 35% in 2025 as IPOs slowed, leaving investors with less cash to recycle into new funds. At the same time, many startups that raised big private rounds in earlier years don’t need to list right now, and with public markets demanding more disclosure and punishing weak profitability, they’re choosing to stay private for longer, keeping liquidity tight across the VC ecosystem.

That’s why potential IPOs from companies like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic matter: Successful listings could return cash to investors, reopen exit paths, and give venture firms room to raise new funds just as AI investment needs continue to surge.

In a market starved for exits, Discord’s move hints at what comes next.—SY

For private tech companies, the pressure is on to get out to the public markets ASAP. Companies like SpaceX, Stripe, and other big tech candidates are backed by venture capital funds that are designed to be patient, by warning investors that holding private positions for a decade or more is normal.

Despite that, fund investors do want to see cash hit their pockets at some point, and no one wants to miss the window to sell into the public markets—especially not with question marks around whether 2026 can sustain the stock price growth rates we saw last year.

Tune into today’s episode to learn why insiders are pushing for IPOs to happen early in today’s hot market, and which non-tech stocks are eyeing a public debut.—AB