(Bloomberg) — The US IPO market was jolted over the past week as companies going public delivered losses to investors that piled into technology upstarts, threatening the buoyant mood ahead of mega-listings expected later this year.
Broker Clear Street Group Inc. slashed its initial public offering target by nearly two thirds, just days after Brazilian fintech AGI Inc. was forced to pare back its own ambitions. The reductions came within a week of Blackstone Inc.-backed Liftoff Mobile Inc.’s move to postpone its first-time share sale as tech stocks spiraled.
The potentially record-breaking IPO for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and perhaps even listings by its xAI unit’s artificial intelligence rivals, remain the most important events this year for the market. Still, with the three businesses whose IPOs came under attack this month pitching themselves as technological disruptors, jitters over AI’s effect even on cutting-edge tech can hit investors and advisers where it hurts.
“If there’s any question or any doubt, investors will pass on a deal and they aren’t feeling any FOMO right now — so they’re fine waiting,” said Matthew Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of pre-IPO research and IPO-focused exchange-traded funds.
Investors have been happy to sit out deals and wait for companies to prove their value, or at least settle down after their IPOs. More than half of the 15 companies whose listings on US exchanges raised more than $100 million each are trading below their offer prices, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Five of those stocks are trading at least 15% lower than what IPO buyers paid for them.
Investors who bought technology IPOs recently are licking their wounds, as publicly-traded companies across software and financials are being pressured on AI uncertainty.
For Liftoff, peers including AppLovin Corp., which similarly operates in the mobile app marketing space, and Unity Software Inc. plunged in the weeks leading up to its planned listing, with losses ballooning beyond 40%.
The same could be said for AGI, after another Brazilian fintech, PicS NV, sank following its late-January IPO.
Investors started pushing back on Clear Street’s targeted valuation in the days leading up to its move to slash a potential first-time share sale to $364 million from as much as $1.05 billion, Bloomberg News has reported. Its expected market value will come in at more than $7 billion, versus a private round closed last month which valued it at $12 billion.
“Some very, very clear direct comps had fallen apart in some cases,” said Kennedy. “It’s turning into the year of the AI-resistant IPO and we’ll continue to see companies that cannot be disrupted by AI go public.”
That’s been the case for the handful of deals which have been successes to start 2026. Forgent Power Solutions Inc., which designs and makes electrical equipment used in data centers, has rallied 20% after a $1.74 billion IPO. Shares of rental firm EquipmentShare.com Inc. have gained more than 30% from a Jan. 22 IPO which raised roughly $859 million.
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