Summary
Elon Musk’s SpaceX helped revive the IPO market in 2Q26 — and may set the stage for a healthy second half of the year. Led by SpaceX, a total of 48 companies completed initial public offerings in 2Q26, up 45% compared to 33 in the first quarter, despite rising inflation and higher energy prices due to the conflict with Iran. Total capital raised was well above both the sequential and year-over-year period, even when excluding SpaceX. In total, 2Q26 IPOs raised $105 billion, compared with $10 billion in 1Q26 and only $7 billion in 2Q25. While $75 billion of this came from SpaceX alone, the remaining group still raised $30 billion. The quarter featured 10 IPOs that each raised $1 billion or more, which had not happened since 4Q21. Most investor attention in the quarter was rightfully on SpaceX, as several notable trends emerged from the offering that could have implications for other planned mega-cap offerings in the coming months. These trends included rapid index adoption of new stocks, eased lock-up restrictions, and an IPO price set by the company, not the banks. In addition, SpaceX initially planned to allocate as much as 30% of the offeri