The two biggest tech IPOs will compete for the top spot in what could become the biggest public listings ever on Wall Street, with OpenAI and Anthropic both attempting IPOs at a staggering $1 trillion valuation.
Combined, the three IPOs would be the first to raise more than $195 billion from institutions in such close succession, a flood of demand for financing that could pull flows away from other deals and test the ability of global markets to absorb successive multi-trillion-dollar listings, Reuters reports.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have both been confirmed by Fortune as lead managers for massive initial public offerings by the world’s two largest artificial intelligence companies. Which bank ends up getting the precious “left lead” on every trade? It is an unanswered question, and one that involves significant revenue gains for either party.
AI giants seeking trillion-dollar valuations
according to ReportsThe lead underwriter chooses where to allocate the stock among institutional investors, explains Jay Ritter, a professor of finance at the University of Florida and a leading IPO researcher. As a result, “soft dollars” come into play; These are additional fees charged on top of implementation costs to keep funds flowing after a large allocation.
Goldman has already secured lead underwriter status in SpaceX’s $75 billion stock issuance, which is scheduled to take place on June 12. The bank recorded an 18% increase in sales and trading revenues over last year, reaching a record $41.5 billion, according to Fortune. Saw Morgan Stanley 17% growth in the same region, bringing its total to $33.1 billion. Ritter believes both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will continue their strong performance in trading revenues as money flows into both as soft dollars due to upcoming initial public offerings of AI companies.
The global IPO market is currently overstretched, with IPOs reaching about $87.5 billion by late May 2026, according to Reuters, the highest level since 2021. In such an environment, the sudden appearance of a group of very large offerings poses the risk of capital markets suffering temporary absorption constraints if multiple mega offerings emerge one after another.
In this regard, this question becomes particularly important, given the size of upcoming IPOs. Joint offering from SpaceX, OpenAIThe market for Anthropic is estimated at approximately $150 billion to $195 billion depending on the size of the deal and the time it takes to bring it to market. If successfully implemented, this scope would create a multi-fold expansion of the IPO offering compared to year-to-date numbers, potentially causing a shift in investor capital flow from mid-cap and small-cap offerings.
In this sense, the relative scope of each individual offering demonstrates the degree of capital raising needs associated with that liquidity event. SpaceX, for example, is set to be the first company to debut publicly at an estimated valuation of $200 billion to $250 billion, having raised about $75 billion or more, creating one of the most ambitious IPOs ever. OpenAI is seen as aiming for a similar sum to SpaceX, with a valuation between $900 billion and $1 trillion.
In addition, Anthropic is also reportedly seeking a multi-hundred billion dollar valuation, valued at between $300 billion and $500 billion.
An OpenAI IPO could drain capital from competitors
Overall, the three listings not only constitute an unusually large issuance package, but also represent a sequential challenge for both underwriters and investors. Timing differences between issues may affect pricing dynamics, since liquidity drained from previous trades may negatively impact demand for subsequent trades, especially when volatility rises, or there is an increase in secondary issuances by large players in the technology market segment.
In addition, the fees make the whole process more important. For example, assuming the typical fees for a mega IPO range from 0.75% to 1%, the total IPO revenue from the three deals could reach hundreds of millions of dollars, excluding additional trading revenue streams.
The total amount of capital needed by these issues has created a potential problem known as crowding. According to Jill Loria, managing director at DA Davidson, OpenAI may exhaust the capital needed to go public by the time the company begins its IPO. SpaceX and Anthropic are in line, and their big public market competitors have enough liquidity to raise tens of billions through secondary issuances, as Google recently demonstrated.
Fear is not imaginary. Reuters reported that global IPOs had raised $87.5 billion as of late May 2026, the fastest pace since 2021. With just three deals worth $195 billion over a short period, the total would be more than tripled.
Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Beck sounded positive about the securities business during the company’s June 9 conference, saying “it’s really booming now,” Reuters reported. The company’s investment banking revenues rose 36% in the first quarter due to its advisory activities. Equity revenues reached record levels against the backdrop of fluctuations resulting from the conflict in Iran.
