This Week in Pre-IPO Stocks

Investors should prioritize Anthropic over OpenAI for AI exposure, as its path to profitability is faster with training costs projected to hit zero by 2029. In the fintech sector, Revolut is a high-conviction pre-IPO play targeting $3.5 billion in profit for 2026, with a likely U.S. IPO coming within 2–3 years. For high-growth software, Anysphere (Cursor) is a dominant leader in AI coding, currently seeking funding at a $50B–$60B valuation while generating 10x the industry average revenue per employee. Anduril remains the top pick in defense tech with a $92.9 billion valuation, driven by its new "Golden Dome" missile defense partnership. Finally, Stripe and Ramp are the essential "picks and shovels" plays for the AI economy, as they build the payment infrastructure for autonomous AI agents.

Monitor for the upcoming SpaceX IPO, which targets a $2 trillion valuation and represents a landmark opportunity to invest in global telecommunications and space infrastructure. Investors seeking exposure to the AI hardware boom should watch for the Rebellions IPO later this year, as the company positions itself as a specialized alternative to NVIDIA for AI inference chips. There is a narrow two-week window to participate in a $500 billion valuation round for Tether (USDT), which now rivals major global banks in profitability. For long-term energy plays, Valar Atomics offers high-conviction exposure to small modular nuclear reactors designed specifically to solve the power shortages facing AI data centers. Fitness wearable maker Whoop is now cash-flow positive following a $10.1 billion valuation round, signaling its final private funding stage before a likely public debut.

Investors should prepare for a potential Anthropic IPO as early as October 2026, which is positioned as a fiscally responsible alternative to OpenAI due to its lower cash burn and surging enterprise revenue. For exposure to the "National Security" AI theme, watch Reflection AI, a Western open-source alternative to Chinese models that is closely integrated with the NVIDIA hardware ecosystem. In the defense sector, Shield AI remains a high-conviction play at a $12.7 billion valuation following its selection for U.S. Air Force drone prototypes. Specialized "Vertical AI" is outperforming general tools, evidenced by Harvey scaling to 25,000 custom agents for the legal industry and Granola rapidly expanding into enterprise workflow automation. While robotics remains a high-conviction long-term bet through Physical Intelligence, investors should note that secondary market valuations for Figure AI have recently cooled by over 24%.

Investors should prioritize exposure to AMD as it secures a massive multi-year partnership with OpenAI, potentially involving a 10% equity stake in exchange for AI chips. Monitor the secondary market for Canva ahead of its projected 2027 IPO, as the company maintains a strong $47 billion valuation backed by eight years of positive free cash flow. Look for opportunities in "NeoCloud" providers like CoreWeave and Lambda, which are seeing explosive demand for AI infrastructure that traditional cloud giants cannot currently meet. Consider the industrial robotics sector, specifically Gecko Robotics, as they secure high-value government contracts like their $54 million U.S. Navy deal for digital twin technology. Watch for a potential shift in the payments landscape following Mastercard’s $1.8 billion acquisition of BVNK, signaling a major institutional move into stablecoin and tokenized deposit infrastructure.

Investors should monitor Google (GOOGL) as it integrates its record $32 billion acquisition of Wiz, a move designed to dominate the cloud security and AI-risk mitigation markets. In the private sector, Anduril Industries and Cursor are showing extreme momentum, with secondary market shares trading at premiums of 62% and 10% respectively over their current funding rounds. Nscale represents a high-conviction play on AI infrastructure, with a planned U.S. IPO and projected revenue growth from $1.5 billion to $9 billion by 2027. Anthropic is pivoting into a high-moat enterprise powerhouse through a strategic partnership with Blackstone, making it a primary competitor to OpenAI in the corporate sector. For those tracking the "Vibe Coding" trend, Replit and Cursor are the leading targets as they capitalize on the rapid democratization of software development.

Investors should prepare for a potential SpaceX IPO in June 2026, as the company targets a record-breaking $1.75 trillion valuation to fund its Starship and lunar initiatives. In the defense sector, Anduril presents a unique secondary market arbitrage opportunity, with its private shares trading at a 52% premium over its current $60 billion primary funding round. High-growth AI infrastructure is a major theme, with Together AI scaling to $1 billion in revenue and OpenAI projecting a massive $30 billion revenue run rate following the launch of GPT 5.4. For those seeking exposure to AI software adoption, Cursor (Anysphere) has reached hyper-growth with $2 billion in annualized revenue and a dominant 25% market share in AI coding assistants. Finally, Kraken is a top fintech watch as it nears a public debut following a landmark regulatory win granting it direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment system.

Investors should monitor PayPal ($PYPL) for potential upside as acquisition rumors involving Stripe signal major consolidation and a thawing "fintech winter." Keep a close watch for the Cerebras Systems IPO expected as early as April 2026, as it represents the primary public "pick and shovel" alternative to NVIDIA ($NVDA). Anthropic’s expansion into COBOL modernization makes it a high-conviction play for disrupting legacy infrastructure, a move that has already pressured incumbents like IBM ($IBM). AMD ($AMD) is aggressively gaining market share through creative cloud financing, making it a key tactical holding alongside OpenAI backers Amazon ($AMZN) and NVIDIA ($NVDA). For long-term growth, look toward private secondary markets for SpaceX, which is seeing its valuation climb toward $1.47 trillion on the back of Starlink’s rapid global subscriber expansion.

Prepare for a potential OpenAI initial public offering as early as the fourth quarter of 2026, which is poised to be a landmark market event. To invest in the critical "picks and shovels" theme of AI observability now, consider established players like Datadog (DDOG), a public competitor to the fast-growing private company Grafana Labs. The AI infrastructure build-out is creating huge demand for hardware, with public giants like NVIDIA (NVDA) and AMD (AMD) investing heavily in cutting-edge private companies. Fintech leader Stripe is making a significant move into regulated digital assets and stablecoins with a new federal bank charter, positioning it for a future at the intersection of finance and crypto. Finally, keep an eye on enterprise-focused AI leaders like Anthropic and Cohere, whose rapid revenue growth signals a strong pipeline of future investment opportunities.

The most direct way to invest in the AI boom is through the "picks and shovels" that provide its essential infrastructure. Consider Nvidia (NVDA), the critical supplier of GPUs to nearly every major AI company, including XAI and backers of Runway. Keep an eye on highly anticipated future IPOs from profitable, high-growth private companies like payments giant Stripe and data infrastructure leader Databricks. The explosive growth of companies like Harvey in the legal sector also highlights a powerful trend in vertical AI, where specialized applications are creating significant value. Finally, Stripe's move to integrate stablecoins into its platform signals a major validation for the adoption of digital currencies in mainstream finance.

Consider investing in Alphabet (GOOGL) as a proxy for its autonomous driving subsidiary Waymo, which just saw its valuation surge 2.4x to $110 billion and is rapidly growing revenue. Prepare for the potential SpaceX IPO later this year, which could be the largest to date and may see fast inclusion into the NASDAQ 100 (QQQ). Key AI infrastructure company Cerebras validated its technology with a $10 billion contract from OpenAI, making it a top company to watch for a future public offering. Dominant AI model providers like OpenAI and Anthropic continue to secure massive valuations and major enterprise partnerships, signaling significant future IPO potential. The primary strategy is to gain exposure to the private AI boom, either through future IPOs or indirectly via public parent companies and key suppliers.