SpaceX plans to launch the largest IPO in history: a $50 billion fundraising could trigger a "avoidance wave" of US stock market listings.

Notice that billionaire Musk is planning the largest IPO in history for SpaceX, which is good news for existing investors and investment banks that will receive significant fees. But there is a group that is not as excited, and that is other companies also planning to go public. SpaceX may raise up to $50 billion through its IPO in the U.S., which could set the stage for IPOs by artificial intelligence companies Anthropic PBC and OpenAI Inc. These two companies are among the highest valued private enterprises globally, and have taken steps this year to prepare for going public. With Musk's rocket and satellite manufacturer planning to debut in June, it and other potential large transactions may capture investors' full attention and force companies seeking relatively normal-sized IPOs to try to avoid them. IPO candidates' sizes will far exceed those of companies that recently went public. Magnus Tonning, the global head of equity capital markets at private equity firm EQT AB, believes there is a risk: if the timing of IPOs is too close to high-profile tech stock IPOs, large asset management firms may not pay attention to smaller issuances. Tonning stated in an interview, "I don't think we would want to come out competing for attention." He said the company will instead try to advance the IPO timeline of its portfolio companies, at least one and a half months before mega deals like SpaceX appear. EQT, based in Stockholm, is preparing to list waste management company Reworld and school bus operator First Student in the U.S. as soon as possible this year. The private equity group has also hired advisors for online insurance company CFC to explore the possibility of selling or going public, with locations potentially in London or New York. The IPO market is struggling to recover from the slump in fundraising following the record during the pandemic. Data shows that the $170 billion raised in 2025 (excluding blank check companies and other financial instruments) is the highest level in three years. However, this is still lower than the average level in the pre-pandemic decade, not to mention the record $492 billion set in 2021. For mature companies that have outgrown the venture capital ecosystem, as well as private equity firms that have reached the end of a typical investment cycle with their portfolio companies, timing the public market debut has become more challenging. "There is ongoing debate about whether these mega IPOs will affect the IPO timelines of other candidate companies, and whether they want to beat them to the punch," said Per Chilstrom, a partner in the capital markets practice at law firm Baker McKenzie in New York. Chilstrom added that the risk is that giant IPOs may divert funds that could have been invested in other transactions. So-called "long-term investors" (such as mutual funds and pension funds) may have no choice but to buy stocks in these mega deals. Tonning stated that whether large asset management firms can get quotas in projects like SpaceX, and the performance of those stocks after going public, will be crucial to their returns this year. Based on private market valuations, the sizes of SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI already exceed 95% of companies in the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 index, and a strong debut will leave any investors not holding these stocks lagging behind the market. "When institutional and retail investors open their holdings page, there will be a question: 'Why don't you own that stock?'" said Dan Klausner, head of public equities advisory at Houlihan Lokey. Klausner added that portfolio managers may have to trim existing positions to make room for the upcoming large market cap stocks. "Funds do not always have $1 billion in cash on hand, so they may need to sell some outperforming stocks, which could have a chain reaction on listed companies," he said. However, freeing up funds for investment is not a problem if the opportunity is right. Matt Warren, co-head of Americas equity capital markets at Bank of America, said, "When big deals come alongwhich cover all equity capital markets productsfunds can make room for what they want to buy." For companies changing their IPO timing to make way for tech giants, this may bring a glimmer of hope. Stephen Grufath, global head of ECM underwriting at Deutsche Bank, said that if these mega deals perform well, they can also attract more investors into the broader IPO market. He stated, "Many IPOs are usually of moderate size, which large mutual funds generally do not have the opportunity to participate in. But if large IPOs succeed, positive market sentiment will quickly spread and have a broad impact."