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Almost every IPO

SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI are worth almost as much as every US tech IPO since 1980 was on its first day.

Numbers as of 20 Oct 2026

AppleAmazonAnthropicGoogleMicrosoftNvidiaOpenAISpaceX
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The story in 8 cards

Can 3 match every IPO? Two columns on one scale. Left: SpaceX at 2.0 trillion dollars, Anthropic at 965 billion and OpenAI at 852 billion, 3.8 trillion together. Right: 3,365 amber dots, one per US tech IPO since 1980, worth 4.1 trillion on their first day. The left stack stops just under a dashed lBlock 1 of 3, SpaceX: one company, half the column. A green SpaceX block stands beside the column of dots on one scale and just passes a dashed halfway line. SpaceX closed its first day, 12 June 2026, worth about 2.1 trillion dollars: one IPO, about half of every tech IPO since 1980.Block 2 of 3, Anthropic: no stock yet, 1.5 trillion dollars in the talks. A solid block for its last funding round sits inside a taller dashed outline for the value being talked about, 55 percent above the last round. Reported, not a price. No price range yet.Block 3 of 3, OpenAI: no IPO yet, 1.25 trillion dollars in the talks. A solid block for its last funding round sits inside a taller dashed outline for the value being talked about, 47 percent above the last round. The round is not closed and terms can still change.The wildest IPO year ever, and SpaceX at almost 3 times that in a day. Yearly bars from 1980 to 2025, with 2021 lit at 746 billion dollars from 121 IPOs. Beside them one green SpaceX bar, a single IPO, stands almost 3 times taller. 2021 took a whole year and 121 IPOs. SpaceX took one day.The twist: Apple took 40 years to hit 2 trillion dollars, SpaceX took one day. Years on the stock market to reach 2 trillion: Apple 40, Microsoft 35, Amazon 27, Nvidia 25, Google 20, SpaceX 1 day. SpaceX spent 24 years private first. The big run came before you could buy.If the talks hold: new numbers added up are more than all 46 years of tech IPOs on their first day. SpaceX at about 1.8 trillion dollars by stock price on 30 October, Anthropic at 1.5 trillion in reported IPO talk, OpenAI at 1.25 trillion in reported round talk. Over 4.5 trillion, all talk until priBiggest block by 2030? SpaceX is rockets and internet, the other two are AI. Choices: SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI or other. Add a comment. Follow Green Owl if you want more.

The full story

More than, or almost?

A viral chart says these three beat 45 years of tech IPOs. It used Anthropic's hoped-for IPO price ($2T) and OpenAI's talked-about one ($1.2T).

Using the last prices investors actually paid: SpaceX: about $2.0T (stock price, 19 Oct) Anthropic: $965B (May 2026 funding round) OpenAI: $852B (March 2026 funding round) Together: about $3.8T

Every US tech IPO from 1980 to 2025: 3,365 companies, $4.1T on their first day.

The catch: the IPOs are counted at their day-one value, not inflation-adjusted. Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia were each worth a few billion or less on day one.

More than half of that $4.1T came from just four years: 1999, 2000, 2020 and 2021.

Why it matters: if Anthropic lists anywhere near its target, the three would pass the line. That is a lot of new stock for the market to absorb.

Source: Jay Ritter, University of Florida IPO data.

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