A Return to the IPO Boom
After a relatively dormant period for IPOs, many companies have chosen to ignite the IPO market once again and have seen a surprising level of success. Due to a wide range of factors such as uncertainties associated with the 2024 election, over valuation in 2020 followed by a market correction in 2024, and global conflicts, many companies in recent years had been choosing to remain private and delay any plans of an IPO. However, beginning in 2025 we began to see a return to the IPO trend followed by big pay offs for many top stocks.
The most notable of recent IPOs, and the gold standard for IPO performance, was CoreWeave which launched its IPO in March of 2025. CoreWeave saw an immediate spike in stock price, which despite being heavily volatile has remained up over 160% since its inception. Much of CoreWeave's success was due to its close connection to the AI sector and backing by Nvidia, but nevertheless its IPO success sparked the wave of 2025-26 IPOs.
Other notable recent IPOs have been Astera Labs (up 183% since inception), and Swarmer (up 220% since inception). Both Astera Labs and Swarmer Inc operate within the technology sector and integrate heavily with artificial intelligence, aligning strongly with current market sentiment as investors continue to shift away from legacy computing companies and shfit towards the AI market.
One particularly interesting recent IPO is the Robinhood Ventures Fund. This 2026 IPO functions similar to a traditional ETF, but with the unique caveat that it is invested into exclusively private companies. This unique offering allows the everyday investor to get early access to investing in top private technology companies such as Databricks and Oura. Despite heavy speculation about how much of this IPO was hype and how much was real potential, RVI is up over 15% since its March inception.
These trends in the IPO market hint at a positive future in the stock market despite global uncertainty caused by foreign conflicts and most recently the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. While these global events have caused a significant drop in the overall market, trends such as recent IPO successes highlight strong underlying market support especially in the technology and AI sector, which presents the possibility for further boom following the resolution of current foreign conflicts. Many remain skeptic given global conditions, but I believe the broader market is still primed for a long-term boom.