By Wajeeh Hussain, founder, East Bridge Global & AIRA OS.

The Two Largest Tech IPOs of the Decade Are Lining Up

Both OpenAI and Anthropic are now actively preparing for public market listings in the 2026–2027 window, moves that would make them, by valuation, two of the largest tech IPOs ever recorded. Reports from The Information, Bloomberg and Reuters suggest OpenAI is targeting a valuation north of $500 billion, with Anthropic in the $170–250 billion range pending its next pre-IPO round.

To put that in context: combined, these two listings could exceed the IPO market cap of Saudi Aramco, Alibaba and Meta on debut. This is not a tech event. It's a macro event.

Why They're Going Public Now

  • Capex demand: Frontier model training will exceed $1 trillion globally by 2030 (Goldman Sachs, 2026). Private markets alone can't fund it.
  • Employee liquidity: Both companies have multi-billion-dollar option overhangs employees want unlocked.
  • Regulatory leverage: Public companies get a different seat at the policy table.
  • Strategic positioning: Whoever lists first sets the AI equity benchmark, and pricing power for years.

What Will Actually Happen on Listing Day

1. AI sector revaluation. NVIDIA, Microsoft, Google, AMD and pure-play AI infrastructure names will all reprice. Expect 10–25% directional moves across the basket within 48 hours of pricing.

2. A wave of secondary AI listings. xAI, Mistral, Perplexity, Cohere and Scale AI will accelerate their own IPO timelines.

3. Family-office and sovereign capital rotation. Gulf sovereigns (PIF, Mubadala, ADQ) and APAC LPs are expected to be major cornerstone allocators, given prior late-stage participation.

4. Enterprise AI budget acceleration. Once these names are public, CFOs of mid-market companies stop treating AI as "experimental", it becomes a board-level line item.

The Risks Nobody Wants to Say Out Loud

  • Compute-cost compression: If inference costs drop another 90% (likely), revenue models reprice fast.
  • Open-source pressure: Meta's Llama, Mistral and Chinese labs (DeepSeek, Qwen) continue to commoditize.
  • Regulatory shocks: EU AI Act enforcement and US executive-branch shifts can rerate the entire basket overnight.
  • Concentration risk: Microsoft revenue dependency (OpenAI) and Amazon dependency (Anthropic) will be diligence flashpoints.

What This Means for MENA and APAC Capital Markets

For Gulf family offices and APAC institutional capital, the OpenAI and Anthropic listings will be the largest cross-border AI allocations of the decade. Expect:

  • Dual-listing pressure on Tadawul, ADX, SGX and HKEX
  • A surge in MENA-domiciled AI funds following the cornerstone investors
  • Increased liquidity events for late-stage AI shareholders, directly feeding platforms like Longpass Capital

What Founders and Business Owners Should Do Now

If you're building an AI company: sharpen your narrative around defensibility, data, distribution, or workflow lock-in. Pure-wrapper plays will get crushed in the post-IPO rerating.

If you're running a traditional business: the AI capex story going public is your green light to deploy. Boards will fund AI initiatives that were "too risky" 12 months ago. The right move is to have a deployment plan ready, which is exactly what AIRA OS ships in our audit process.

Frequently Asked Questions

When will OpenAI IPO?

Public reporting points to a 2026–2027 window, with active S-1 preparation underway. Final timing depends on market conditions and regulatory readiness.

When will Anthropic IPO?

Anthropic is publicly signaling a 2026–2027 listing window, likely following or running parallel to OpenAI depending on private-market dynamics.

What valuation is OpenAI expected to list at?

Current private-market pricing implies an IPO valuation north of $500 billion, though final pricing depends on the road-show and market sentiment.

How will these IPOs affect smaller AI companies?

Expect a positive halo effect for differentiated AI players and pressure on undifferentiated wrappers. The basket re-rates upward, but quality dispersion widens.

How can I get exposure to AI before the IPOs?

Through pre-IPO secondary marketplaces, accredited-investor syndicates and structured exposure via family-office vehicles. Talk to East Bridge Global if you want to be evaluated for our institutional and accredited-investor network.

Should my business deploy AI now or wait?

Deploy now. By the time these IPOs price, AI deployment will be a board-level expectation, not an advantage. The companies that deploy in 2026 will look like the early Shopify adopters of 2014.

Final Word

"The OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs aren't the top of the AI cycle, they're the legitimization of it. Capital is about to flood the productive layer of AI: deployment, infrastructure and workflow. That's the layer East Bridge and AIRA OS were built for.", Wajeeh Hussain, CEO, East Bridge Global.

Book a strategy call to position your business or fund ahead of the listings.