The year Wall Street decided to open the gates
SpaceX just pulled off the largest IPO in history. $1.75 trillion valuation. $75 billion raised. Listed on the Nasdaq in mid-2026, it instantly became one of the most valuable public companies on the planet, overtaking Saudi Aramco’s 2019 record that had stood unchallenged for nearly a decade.
And that was just the opening act.
The US IPO calendar in 2026 is shaping up to be unlike anything public markets have seen in a generation. According to Renaissance Capital, $34.2 billion was already raised through May 2026, up 163.9% from the same period last year. The total number of IPOs stands at 113, up 10.5% year on year. But the volume is not even the headline. The headline is the names.
We are talking about Anthropic, the company behind Claude, the AI assistant you have probably already used. We are talking about OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT a household name. Stripe, which processes payments every time you buy something online. Klarna, which lets you split purchases into instalments. These are not obscure startups. These are companies woven into daily life, and they are all heading to public markets.
For Indian investors, this matters more than it might seem. Platforms like Vested let you invest in US-listed stocks directly from India under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme, which allows you to send up to $250,000 per financial year abroad for investments. The access exists. The question is which companies deserve your attention and why.
Let us go through them.
The companies that matter most
1. Anthropic: You have used Claude. Soon you might be able to own a piece of it.
Valuation: ~$965 billion
Expected listing: Late 2026
Claude is the AI assistant that helps you write emails, summarise documents, debug code, and answer complex questions. Millions of people use it every day. The company behind it, Anthropic, recently raised $65 billion in a funding round that valued it at approximately $965 billion, making it the most valuable private startup in the world right now, ahead of even OpenAI.
Anthropic was started in 2021 by researchers who previously worked at OpenAI. The founding idea was straightforward but important: if AI is going to be this powerful, it needs to be built with safety at the centre, not as an afterthought. That philosophy, which might have seemed like a niche concern a few years ago, has become one of the company’s biggest commercial advantages.
Here is why. When a large bank, a hospital, or a government agency wants to deploy AI, they cannot afford mistakes. A model that makes things up, leaks sensitive data, or behaves unpredictably is a serious liability. Anthropic’s reputation for building reliable, enterprise-grade AI has made it the go-to choice for exactly these kinds of institutions. That demand is showing up in revenue, which has been climbing sharply, driven by enterprise demand for AI coding tools, productivity software, and API access that allows companies to build Claude directly into their own products.
The company has reportedly filed confidentially for an IPO, with a public listing expected in late 2026.
The big question investors will wrestle with at the time of listing is a fundamental one: in AI, who ultimately makes the money? The companies building the underlying models like Anthropic and OpenAI, or the companies building products and services on top of those models? Anthropic is a bet on the former. Whether that bet proves correct will shape not just this IPO, but how the market values AI companies for the next decade.
2. OpenAI: The company that started the AI wave, still deciding when to list
Valuation: ~$852 billion
Expected listing: Late 2026 or early 2027
ChatGPT needs no introduction. It reached 100 million users faster than any consumer product in history. OpenAI, the company behind it, is now valued at $852 billion following its March 2026 funding round, with serious talk of the public offering pushing that figure toward $1 trillion.
No formal IPO filing has happened yet. But the preparation is clearly underway. Enterprise customers pay significant fees for API access and advanced capabilities. The consumer subscription business is large and growing. The company also went through a significant governance restructuring to move away from its original nonprofit structure, and the final form it takes into public markets will matter for how investors think about their rights and returns.
The complication is the cost side. Running and continuously improving frontier AI models requires compute spending that runs into billions of dollars annually. That is the tension at the heart of the OpenAI story: extraordinary revenue growth on one side, extraordinary infrastructure costs on the other.
One detail worth noting: OpenAI has indicated plans to offer roughly 30% of its IPO shares to retail investors, which would make it far more accessible to individual investors than most IPOs of this size typically are.
There is also a sequencing angle worth watching. Anthropic appears to be moving faster toward a listing. If Anthropic goes first, it will set the benchmark for how markets value large language model companies. OpenAI would then be priced relative to that, which creates an interesting dynamic for investors tracking both.
3. Stripe: The invisible engine behind a third of the internet’s transactions
Valuation: ~$159 billion
Expected listing: 2026 or 2027
Every time you complete a purchase online and the payment just goes through cleanly, there is a reasonable chance Stripe is the plumbing behind it. The company processed $1.9 trillion in payment volumes in 2025, up 34% from 2024. Its customer base spans over 50 countries, with 57% of customers now outside the US.
Stripe was founded in 2010 by Patrick and John Collison, two brothers from Ireland who went on to build one of the most valuable private companies in the world. The company has been rumoured to be going public since 2021. The Collisons have consistently chosen to stay private, using internal share sales to give employees liquidity rather than rushing to public markets. As recently as January 2026, John Collison described the company as being “in no rush” to list.
But the numbers make a listing increasingly inevitable. Payment volumes are at record levels. New business grew 50% from 2024 to 2025, partly driven by AI payment technology deals with OpenAI and Microsoft. And at a $159 billion internal valuation, the pressure from employees and early investors wanting a proper exit will only grow.
The valuation comparison is striking. PayPal, which does broadly similar things to Stripe, has a market cap of around $37 billion. Stripe is valued at more than four times that on a private basis. Whether public markets accept that premium or compress it is one of the more interesting pricing debates this IPO season will produce.
4. Klarna: The buy now, pay later company that nearly collapsed and came back
Valuation: ~$15 billion
Expected listing: 2026
Klarna lets you split purchases into instalments, usually interest-free if you pay on time. You have probably seen it at checkout on dozens of shopping sites. The concept is called Buy Now, Pay Later, and Klarna is the company that made it mainstream globally.
In 2021, Klarna was worth $46 billion, the most valuable private startup in Europe at the time. Then interest rates rose sharply. The cost of lending money went up. Credit quality became a concern. And in 2022, Klarna’s valuation was slashed by 85% in a brutal down round.
What happened next is the interesting part. Instead of limping along, Klarna restructured aggressively. It cut costs, returned to profitability, deepened its US market presence, launched a credit card, and rebuilt its technology around AI, reportedly automating large parts of its customer service while actually improving response quality.
The company heading to public markets in 2026 is genuinely different from the one that cratered in 2022. It has proven it can survive a rate cycle. It has demonstrated real unit economics. And at a $15 billion valuation, it is entering public markets at a fraction of its 2021 peak, which changes the risk-reward profile considerably.
5. Chime: America’s largest neobank, built for people traditional banks ignored
Valuation: ~$25 billion
Expected listing: Nasdaq, 2026
Chime was built specifically for working Americans who found traditional banking either too expensive or too exclusionary. No physical branches. No monthly fees. No minimum balance requirements. Just a clean, digital-first banking experience that does what most people actually need a bank to do.
The business model is straightforward. Chime earns a small interchange fee every time a customer uses their Chime Visa card. The customers themselves pay nothing directly, which is why retention tends to be very high. Revenue comes from volume, and volume comes from stickiness.
Think of it as the neobank version of what several Indian fintechs have been attempting for years: making banking genuinely accessible to the mass market, not just to the segment that traditional banks already serve well.
The IPO has been delayed multiple times as fintech valuations went through a correction cycle. With multiples recovering and the rate environment stabilising, 2026 looks like the year it finally crosses the finish line.
Note: Chime’s exact current valuation and listing timeline should be verified against the latest available filings, as details may have evolved since earlier reporting.
6. Anduril: The defence contractor that Silicon Valley built from scratch
Valuation: Above $60 billion
Expected listing: H2 2026
Anduril is not a typical defence company. It does not make fighter jets or aircraft carriers. It builds autonomous surveillance systems, AI-powered border security technology, and unmanned military hardware, and it does all of this with a software-first approach that legacy defence contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have struggled to replicate.
The US Department of Defense is spending $855.7 billion this year. A growing portion of that is going toward exactly the kind of AI-driven defence technology Anduril specialises in. The company already holds significant active contracts, and a new funding round from Andreessen Horowitz in partnership with Thrive Capital is raising an additional $4 billion, which is expected to push the valuation above $60 billion.
The founder has publicly committed to taking Anduril public. The business rationale is clear. The only real question is exactly when in the second half of 2026 the listing happens.
7. Hinge Health: The physio clinic that fits in your pocket
Valuation: ~$6.2 billion
Expected listing: NYSE, 2026
Back pain and joint problems are among the leading causes of healthcare spending in the United States. Hinge Health has built a platform that delivers physical therapy entirely through an app and wearables, no clinic visit required. You follow guided exercise programmes, track your progress, and get coached remotely, all through your phone.
The company does not sell directly to patients. It sells to employers and health insurers, who then offer Hinge Health as a benefit to their employees and members. That distribution model is smart for two reasons. First, it gives Hinge Health a large, recurring revenue base since employers sign multi-year contracts. Second, it means the people using the platform are not paying out of pocket, which dramatically improves engagement and completion rates compared to traditional physical therapy.
Hinge Health filed its S-1 in 2025 and has been widely expected to list in 2026. It is not the flashiest name on this list. But it is one of the most comprehensible businesses: clear revenue model, identifiable customers, measurable outcomes, and a market that will only grow as sedentary work and ageing populations drive musculoskeletal healthcare demand higher.
Note: Current listing status and updated financials should be verified before publishing, as the S-1 process may have progressed significantly since initial filing.
8. Kraken: The crypto exchange that is finally ready to face public scrutiny
Valuation: ~$13.3 billion
Expected listing: October 2026 (tentative)
Kraken is one of the most established cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, with a reputation for being more institutionally credible than many of its peers. It filed an S-1 confidentially with the SEC in April 2026 after a pause triggered by crypto market volatility and broader macroeconomic turbulence earlier in the year.
The valuation has come down from $20 billion in late 2025 to approximately $13.3 billion today, a roughly 30% correction. That reset, combined with a recovering crypto market, makes the October 2026 timeline increasingly plausible. The company is using the intervening period to work through compliance requirements and improve its operational infrastructure, the unglamorous groundwork that serious IPO candidates have to complete before facing the scrutiny of quarterly public reporting.
The 2026 US IPO calendar at a glance
| Company | Sector | Valuation | Exchange | Timeline |
| SpaceX | Aerospace / Satellite | ~$1.75T | Nasdaq | Already listed |
| Anthropic | AI / Foundation Models | ~$965B | TBD | Late 2026 |
| OpenAI | AI / Productivity | ~$852B | TBD | Late 2026 / Early 2027 |
| Stripe | Fintech / Payments | ~$159B | TBD | 2026 or 2027 |
| Anduril | Defence Tech | Above $60B | TBD | H2 2026 |
| Chime | Neobanking | ~$25B | Nasdaq | 2026 |
| Klarna | BNPL / Fintech | ~$15B | NYSE / Nasdaq | 2026 |
| Hinge Health | Digital Health | ~$6.2B | NYSE | 2026 |
| Kraken (Payward) | Crypto Exchange | ~$13.3B | TBD | October 2026 |
| Databricks | Data / AI Infrastructure | ~$134B | Nasdaq | 2027 (delayed) |
A few things worth knowing before you act on any of this
You almost certainly will not get the IPO price
In India, when a company IPOs, you can apply through your broker, get an allotment, and potentially list at a profit on Day 1. The US system does not work that way for retail investors. IPO shares at the offer price go almost entirely to large institutional investors. By the time you can buy, the stock is already trading on the exchange, often at a significant premium to the offer price.
That said, some companies are making deliberate efforts to change this. SpaceX reserved up to 30% of its IPO shares for retail investors and Fidelity even lowered its minimum account balance for the SpaceX IPO from $500,000 to $2,000 to enable broader participation. OpenAI has signalled a similar intent. It is a shift worth watching across the pipeline.
Even so, for most Indian retail investors, the realistic entry point will be the secondary market after listing begins. That is not necessarily a disadvantage. It just means timing and patience matter more than rushing in on Day 1.
The lock-up expiry is where things get interesting
When a company IPOs in the US, insiders, employees, and early investors are typically barred from selling their shares for six months. When that lock-up period expires, a wave of selling often hits the stock. Prices correct. And that correction frequently creates better entry points for patient investors than anything available on listing day.
The Circle IPO in 2026 is a clean illustration. It priced at $31, ran to nearly $300 within three weeks, and then came back significantly after the lock-up expiry. Investors who waited for the dust to settle had a very different experience from those who bought the Day 1 excitement.
The rupee does some of the work for you
The rupee has historically depreciated around 3 to 4% against the dollar every year. This means that even if a US stock delivers flat returns in dollar terms, you still end up ahead in rupee terms over time. It is a structural tailwind that investing purely in Indian equities does not offer. Over long holding periods, this currency effect compounds meaningfully.
Plan your LRS remittances, do not react to them
Under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme, resident Indians can remit up to $250,000 per financial year for overseas investments. Tax Collected at Source applies on foreign remittances beyond a threshold, and the applicable rates and limits have been subject to change across recent budgets. Before you remit, verify the current TCS provisions with a chartered accountant or check the latest CBDT notification, as the rules may have been updated in the 2025-26 or 2026-27 budget cycles.
The broader point stands regardless: if you are planning to invest across multiple listings this year, map out your remittances across the full financial year rather than reacting to each listing announcement in isolation.
The smartest way to think about all of this
Here is the honest version.
Most of the biggest names on this list are still private. You cannot buy Anthropic or OpenAI on any exchange today. By the time they list, venture investors and large institutions that got in years ago will already have captured the most significant returns. That is simply how the private-to-public transition works.
But that does not mean you are too late.
The themes driving every company on this list, AI infrastructure, digital payments, defence technology, neobanking, digital health, are already represented in publicly traded stocks and ETFs that you can access right now through Vested. Investing in the ecosystem before a headline IPO lands is often a more measured way to participate in the same tailwinds, without paying the excitement premium that Day 1 listings typically carry.
The IPO pipeline is genuinely one of the most exciting in a decade. But the best investors tend to be more interested in the businesses than in the listings.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Valuations cited are based on the latest available private funding data and publicly reported estimates as of June 2026 and may differ materially at the time of any actual public listing. TCS and LRS provisions are subject to change and should be verified with a qualified tax professional before remitting funds.
