Goldman Sachs is projecting $160 billion in US IPO proceeds for 2026, a potential record that would surpass previous highs, as a wave of AI-focused companies prepare to go public. The forecast comes as OpenAI filed a confidential S-1 with the SEC targeting a September IPO at a valuation between $852 billion and $1 trillion, and SpaceX aims to raise $75 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation later this year. Anthropic reached $965 billion in a late-May funding round. Meanwhile, crypto is struggling: Bitcoin declined 40% over the past year, and US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $1.7 billion in outflows during the first week of June 2024 alone, following a $4.4 billion outflow streak over 13 prior sessions.
IPO pipeline heats up
Goldman's $160 billion estimate would beat the record $143 billion set in 2021. The bank's equity capital markets team cited strong demand from institutional investors for AI and technology names. OpenAI's September IPO is the most anticipated, with the ChatGPT maker looking to lock in a nine-figure valuation. SpaceX's potential listing would be the largest ever for a private company at that $1.75 trillion price. Anthropic's near-trillion-dollar valuation in its latest round shows investors are still pouring money into AI labs despite the broader market's rotation.
Crypto feels the pressure
The contrast with crypto is stark. Bitcoin's correlation with the Nasdaq 100 peaked at 0.87 in 2024 after institutional milestones like the ETF approvals, but that link has broken as AI stocks surged 170% over the past year while Bitcoin dropped 40%. BlackRock's IBIT, the largest spot Bitcoin ETF, recorded a $528 million single-day withdrawal on May 28, 2024 — one of the biggest outflows since the products launched. The first week of June 2024 saw $1.7 billion exit the ten US spot Bitcoin ETFs, suggesting investors rotated into equities.
Liquidity on the sidelines
Roughly $8 trillion sits in US money market funds, a potential source of fuel for both the IPO wave and any crypto recovery. But so far, that cash has gravitated toward AI and semiconductor stocks rather than digital assets. The next test for Bitcoin will come as the IPO calendar fills up in the second half of 2026 and whether crypto can offer a competing narrative to the AI boom.
