How the IPO announcement became a publicity ritual

Taking a page from the dot-com boom, today’s hottest IPOs like SpaceX and Anthropic, are as much a launch party as they are a financial lever.

[Photo: Adam Gray/Bloomberg/Getty Images]

An initial public offering has its official functions—raising money, providing liquidity for equity-holding employees and early investors—but it has unofficial ones, too. The record-setting $1.77 trillion SpaceX IPO, whose valuation was partly pumped up by its artificial intelligence ambitions, just reminded us all of a big one: a blockbuster IPO can be a blockbuster branding event. No wonder the scramble to reap the publicity benefits of being seen as the next trillion-dollar-plus IPO started before SpaceX even launched its offering, and has only accelerated since.

We know the two main candidates for that milestone, because AI rivals Anthropic and OpenAI have already announced their intention to go public.........

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