If you were not in the business or finance world, you probably wouldn't understand what Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) actually mean. But now, IPOs are no longer a geek affair. It is the term for the first time that a private company sells shares of its stock to the public on a stock exchange. IPOs, however, are considered a late stage at which to invest in a company.
Why it matters is that over the last two decades, only big Wall Street firms, venture capitalists, and elite institutional insiders got to invest in high-growth startups. By the time a regular person could buy shares at an IPO, the biggest profits were already gone. But today, through accessible secondary markets and digital platforms, everyday individuals now have the opportunity to invest early in startups they see potential in before they go public.
Let's use some examples to buttress our points. Firstly, let's look at Masayoshi Son, the Zainichi Korean founder, chairman, and chief executive of SoftBank Group (SBG). He invested $20 million in global B2B marketplace Alibaba in 2000. By the time Alibaba went public on September 19, 2014, with a record-breaking IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "BABA", Son's stake in the company was worth a staggering $58 billion—the largest investment in history.
Now, let's come back home to say our local version of the story. Recently, Tosin Eniolorunda—the group CEO of Moniepoint—revealed in a podcast that Zenith Bank's founder, Jim Ovia, invested $5.5m to acquire 20% of Moniepoint in 2019. As of 2026, Moniepoint is a unicorn with a market valuation of $1 billion. Jim Ovia's $5.5 million investment in 2019 is now worth $200 million by the latest valuations. If Moniepoints decides to go public in the future, the figures might double.
At the time Jim Ovia backed TeamAPT (now Moniepoint), the company was almost unknown. Only a few individuals can take a bold step to write a $5.5 million cheque for an unknown banking software company and bet on it becoming the next Interswitch. Most people can't make those kinds of private, risky bets. But when these companies finally grow up and go public, the average individuals get their own turn, and they can still make great money buying the stock.
The major IPOs happening in 2026
The global IPO market in 2026 is shaping up to be one of the most monumental on record, potentially unlocking trillions of dollars in market value. After a multi-year drought, a massive backlog of private tech giants, artificial intelligence trailblazers, and fintech pioneers are pushing toward the public markets. Besides AI, the world’s most successful aerospace tech company has also gone public, too. Other industries that are included in this list are telecommunications, chip manufacturing, fintech, cloud and software, agriculture, and fashion.
The reason so many tech giants are going public this year comes down to a shifting survival line: capital alone is no longer enough to stay competitive. Operating on a global scale now requires massive, highly advanced technical infrastructure just to maintain a company's technological edge. Because building and securing this level of tech is incredibly expensive, staying private is no longer sustainable. These companies need the massive wave of capital that only the public stock market can provide just to fund the infrastructure keeping them alive.
Artificial Intelligence
1. OpenAI
OpenAI and Anthropic are battling for a huge share of the global AI market. The creator of ChatGPT filed its initial S-1 registration form in June with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is preparing for a massive $1 trillion IPO by September. The IPO will be facilitated by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The public listing is aimed at funding the company's massive data centre and compute expansions.
2. Anthropic
Anthropic became the current most valuable privately held AI company after securing $65 billion in a Series H funding round that puts its valuation at $965 billion. The AI safety-focused creator of the Claude models confidentially submitted its S-1 with the US SEC in the same June OpenAI filed its S-1. The news of OpenAI going public with a $1 trillion IPO plan pushed Anthropic to take that bold move, targeting a potential listing as early as October.
3. Cerebras Systems
Cerebras Systems is an AI chipmaker that went public in May at an initial offer price of $185 per share. It trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CBRS and saw its stock surge past $270 on day one as investors hunt for hardware alternatives to Nvidia. The IPO reached a benchmark of raising $5.55 billion in the largest U.S. tech IPO since 2019, though the stock has experienced notable volatility since its debut.
Aerospace
4. SpaceX
SpaceX executed the largest initial public offering (IPO) in Wall Street history through the official public listing of its stock on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol SPCX. Completed on June 12, 2026, in fact, the IPO made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. The company's stock started trading at $150 (£112) and shortly after that, the share price rose to quickly jump to $168, which is more than 20 percentage points. The share price finished the day at just above $161.
Cloud
5. Discord
Discord has confidentially filed its draft S-1 paperwork with the SEC on January 2026 and target $15 billion valuation. Lead underwriters Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are the financial analysts currently managing the listing timeline. The company's financial status has surpassed $725 million in annual recurring revenue driven by over 200 million monthly active users.
Fashion
6. Shein
Shein’s path to going public has been anything but smooth. After regulatory hurdles and political opposition derailed its plans to list in New York in 2023 and London in 2025, the fast-fashion giant turned its attention to a potential IPO in Hong Kong IPO. A 2022 round put Shein’s valuation at $100 billion, but the number dropped to $66 billion the next year. Shein is currently valued at $50 billion, with an IPO expected this year.
