Can the stockmarket swallow SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI?

The Economist's finance section this week examines an unprecedented run of stockmarket debuts. Three of the world's largest private technology and space companies — SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI — are preparing to list in the United States, in what the magazine describes as potentially the biggest debuts in market history.

SpaceX leads the queue

According to the report, SpaceX hopes to raise $75bn from investors on June 11th, issuing shares that will begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange the next day. The rocketry firm led by Elon Musk is expected to be the first of the three to reach public markets.

Two AI labs follow

Anthropic, an artificial-intelligence lab, filed draft paperwork for its initial public offering on June 1st. OpenAI, its competitor, is expected to do so soon. The two are rumoured to be seeking as much as $60bn apiece — a scale of fundraising rarely seen even in the most active listing cycles.

Why it matters

The Economist estimates that together the three "giga-IPOs" may add as much as $4trn to the market value of listed American companies in a matter of months. The article asks whether public investors can absorb that volume of new stock; the print edition carries the headline "A feast for the ages". For the companies involved, the listings would convert years of private funding into public ownership; for the market, they would concentrate an unusual share of new capital in a handful of names.