AI IPO boom next year? The changing 2026 IPO landscape
December 23, 2025 • 2m 53s
Joe Kernen (Co-Anchor of Squawk Box)
00:00.070
well
two
thousand
twenty
six
could
see
some
big
changes
for
the
IPO
market
forcing
some
moves
by
some
of
the
biggest
players
leslie
picker
joins
us
now
with
the
story
hey
leslie
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
00:10.790
hey
joe
good
morning
yeah
for
years
many
of
the
biggest
private
AI
companies
think
open
AI
and
throat
big
databricks
have
shunned
the
public
markets
but
bankers
say
that
may
need
to
change
next
year
as
the
capex
cycle
crosses
a
threshold
where
private
only
financings
just
become
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
00:26.950
too
constraining
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
00:28.150
mackenzie
research
shows
that
by
twenty
thirty
data
centers
equipped
to
handle
AI
processing
loads
are
estimated
to
require
more
than
five
trillion
dollars
in
capex
private
AI
companies
have
been
able
to
spend
tens
of
billions
of
dollars
a
year
on
capex
but
this
next
phase
will
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
00:44.630
require
more
funding
and
likely
that's
through
the
debt
markets
and
it's
more
efficient
and
less
expensive
to
access
a
wide
range
of
credit
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
00:52.750
as
a
public
company
now
there
are
a
few
reasons
for
this
first
having
a
public
equity
gives
lenders
more
certainty
on
real-time
valuation
which
can
allow
a
company
to
take
on
more
debt
with
tighter
spreads
essentially
lower
costs
of
capital
here
additionally
suppliers
and
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
01:07.470
partners
typically
sign
ten
to
fifteen
year
meaning
counterparties
want
to
be
sure
there's
financing
durability
over
the
long
term
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
01:15.630
now
to
be
sure
there
is
this
looming
question
out
there
about
how
many
of
these
companies
can
go
public
at
the
same
time
and
whether
the
market
will
be
able
to
absorb
all
of
that
supply
for
example
if
open
AI
raised
at
a
trillion
dollar
valuation
which
is
what's
been
reported
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
01:32.110
out
there
and
floated
just
ten
percent
of
the
company
in
an
offering
that
alone
would
be
well
more
than
all
three
hundred
and
forty
IPO
's
raised
in
the
US
this
year
combined
joe
Joe Kernen (Co-Anchor of Squawk Box)
01:45.670
you
could
probably
make
the
case
leslie
that
that
the
shrink
in
the
public
the
availability
of
of
public
shares
has
been
unbelievable
over
the
past
twenty
years
for
a
lot
of
reasons
why
why
companies
did
not
want
to
be
public
this
could
you
could
see
you
know
many
many
more
Joe Kernen (Co-Anchor of Squawk Box)
02:03.750
shares
available
in
the
public
marketplace
and
still
not
be
what
you
would
the
pendulum
would
only
be
about
halfway
back
to
where
it
was
years
ago
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
02:13.050
no
you're
spot
on
and
the
solution
in
washington
has
really
been
to
fix
the
private
markets
find
ways
for
retail
investors
individual
investors
high
net
worth
investors
to
get
access
to
some
of
these
companies
before
they
go
public
because
they've
been
staying
private
so
long
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
02:28.410
and
the
thought
has
been
oh
well
the
individual
investor
has
really
missed
out
on
kind
of
that
growth
phase
of
a
company
's
lifespan
so
why
don't
we
find
a
way
to
kind
of
democratize
the
private
markets
in
order
to
give
them
access
but
this
could
be
kind
of
that
threshold
that
Leslie Picker (Senior Finance and Banking Reporter)
02:42.830
really
changes
the
game
for
going
public
next
year
Joe Kernen (Co-Anchor of Squawk Box)
02:45.710
it's
hard
to
be
there
are
reasons
not
not
to
be
public
i
blame
the
lawyers
as
i
always
do
for
everything
but
Autoscroll