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The Launch Board
The Launch Board
Every IPO and pre IPO in the AI economy that is worth watching, classified by filing facts rather than hype. A name moves when its paperwork moves.
Data as of November 2, 2026. Educational only, not investment advice.
How to read this board
On the pad: A public filing exists, an S-1 or the local equivalent, but the deal has not priced yet.
Liftoff: Priced in the last 30 days, or still inside its first trading week.
In orbit: Public for less than 12 months and still tracked. Names graduate off the board at 12 months.
In the hangar: Still private: credible reporting of IPO preparation, or a plausible candidate by scale alone. Each card says which.
The source labels
Filed: Taken from a filing, an exchange record or a company release.
Reported: From named financial press or established IPO trackers, not from the company.
Rumoured: Market talk with thin sourcing. Carried with a warning, never as fact.
On the pad
A public filing exists, an S-1 or the local equivalent, but the deal has not priced yet.
Anthropic
ANT · Nasdaq Global Select Market
AI labsFiledUnited States
Last private mark: $965 billion post money (Series H, May 2026). Filed terms: none yet. Bankers are reported discussing a $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion valuation.
Why people are watching: It would be the first US listing of a frontier model company, and at reported targets the largest IPO on record, ahead of SpaceX in June 2026.
What could go wrong: The filing shows very large paper losses and hundreds of billions in compute commitments that cannot be cancelled. If public investors price the compute bill instead of the growth, the deal can shrink or slip.
Filing: Public Form S-1 filed with the SEC on 2026-10-26; S-1/A filed 2026-11-02 adding Q3 2026 results (revenue of about $17 billion in the quarter, per Bloomberg via IPO Scoop)
Terms: No filed terms: share count and price range are blank in the S-1. Banker discussions reported at a $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion valuation and a raise of $75 billion to $100 billion (Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, October 2026). Reported, not filed.
Key facts: First half 2026 revenue of $16.3 billion, about fourteen times the prior year period. Large paper net losses driven by revaluing convertible notes. Compute commitments reported above $500 billion over ten years, many non cancellable.
Timing: Pricing reported for the week of 2026-11-16, before US Thanksgiving on 2026-11-26. Reported, not company confirmed.
Underwriters: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley
Venue: Nasdaq Global Select Market
Verification: VERIFIED for the filing; REPORTED for valuation targets and timing
Sources:
SEC Form S-1 via Dealroom news summary, 2026-10-26
IPO Scoop, S-1/A note, 2026-11-02
Wall Street Journal reporting via Dealroom, 2026-10-28
Nscale
NSCL · New York Stock Exchange
Cloud and data centersFiledUnited Kingdom
Last private mark: $14.6 billion (Series C, March 2026). Reported target: $30 billion to $35 billion, with some investors favouring $16 billion to $19 billion.
Why people are watching: The first European neocloud trying to list in New York, and its prospectus puts hard numbers on how much of the AI buildout rests on contracts with two customers.
What could go wrong: The gap between $103.4 billion of paper contracts and 55 megawatts live is the central argument. A Norwegian site runs six months behind schedule and Microsoft exited a planned UK project over power access.
Filing: Public Form S-1 filed with the SEC on 2026-09-18; confidential filing dated 2026-02-17 per S-1 coverage
Terms: Reported raise of about $3 billion and a reported valuation target of $30 billion to $35 billion (Bloomberg, September to October 2026). The S-1 sets no price range.
Key facts: $103.4 billion of signed customer contracts at 2026-08-31, about 85 percent tied to Microsoft and Anthropic, with about 2.5 percent active. First half 2026 revenue of $140.6 million and a net loss of about $1.02 billion. A $3.36 billion pre IPO convertible note package closed 2026-09-25, including $1 billion from Nvidia, conversion capped at a $30 billion valuation. About 55 megawatts live against the contract book.
Timing: No pricing date set as of 2026-11-02. Bloomberg reported in October 2026 that the company is still working through SEC comments, and that some investors favour a valuation nearer $16 billion to $19 billion.
Underwriters: Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley
Venue: New York Stock Exchange
Verification: VERIFIED for the filing; REPORTED for targets and delay
Sources:
SEC Form S-1 coverage, CNBC, 2026-09-18
Bloomberg reporting via CryptoBriefing, 2026-10-18
S-1 analysis, mrkt30, 2026-10-26
SB Energy
SBE · Nasdaq Global Select Market
Energy and powerFiledUnited States
Reported target: about $50 billion, with a raise of $5 billion to $7 billion discussed. No price range filed.
Why people are watching: The purest public bet yet on the power side of the AI buildout, with OpenAI as tenant, investor and warrant holder at the same time.
What could go wrong: Almost everything being sold is contracted rather than built. If timelines or the OpenAI relationship wobble, the valuation discussion restarts from a much lower base.
Filing: Public Form S-1 filed 2026-09-01; amended 2026-09-04 and 2026-09-21 (company announcement and SEC record)
Terms: Reported raise of $5 billion to $7 billion, including up to $500 million allocated to Japanese investors. No share count or price range in the filing.
Key facts: 8.8 GW of contracted data center IT capacity, none operating at filing. About 2.2 GW of operating solar and battery assets and about 5.5 GW across operating, construction and contracted power projects. OpenAI is anchor tenant (20 year lease, about 8 GW, PORTS Pike campus, Ohio) and a $500 million equity investor alongside SoftBank. Nvidia committed $3 billion across a prepaid forward and an IPO linked private placement. The filing states the company is substantially dependent on OpenAI.
Timing: Formal marketing postponed in late September 2026 during SEC review (Reuters, 2026-09-25). The Information reported on 2026-10-22 that pricing may slip to December 2026 or into 2027 amid investor pushback on a valuation discussed around $60 billion.
Underwriters: J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Mizuho
Venue: Nasdaq Global Select Market and Nasdaq Texas
Layer note: It also builds data centers. Placed in Energy and power because its operating assets today are power assets and no data center capacity was operating at filing.
Verification: VERIFIED for the filing; REPORTED for raise, valuation and delay
Sources:
SB Energy company announcement and S-1, via ProShares insight summary, 2026-09-01
Reuters reporting via IPO trackers, 2026-09-25
The Information reporting via AI Stock Wire, 2026-10-22
Syntiant
SYTN · Nasdaq
Chips and hardwareFiledUnited States
No price range filed. Tracker coverage cites a targeted raise of about $300 million on trailing revenue of about $270 million.
Why people are watching: A rare edge AI chip name at the small end of the board: processors that run models inside earbuds, wearables and drones rather than in data centers.
What could go wrong: A filing that sits unpriced for a full quarter usually means price discovery is hard, and small cap chip deals compete for attention with the mega deals on this same board.
Filing: Public Form S-1 filed 2026-07-06 (company press release); S-1/A third amendment filed 2026-08-31 on SEC EDGAR
Terms: No price range set as of the last amendment. A targeted raise of about $300 million and trailing revenue of about $270 million appear in tracker coverage; reported, not filed.
Key facts: Edge AI chip company (Neural Decision Processors plus MEMS microphones), based in Irvine, California, backed by Intel Capital and Microsoft.
Timing: No roadshow or pricing date announced as of 2026-11-02.
Underwriters: Citigroup, BofA Securities, UBS
Venue: Nasdaq
Verification: VERIFIED for the filing; REPORTED for financial colour
Key facts: One secondary profile prints SYNT. The company release and EDGAR based trackers say SYTN, which the board uses.
Sources:
Syntiant company press release, 2026-07-06
SEC EDGAR S-1/A record via IPO watch logs, 2026-08-31
Liftoff
Priced in the last 30 days, or still inside its first trading week.
No liftoff this week. The Liftoff class is empty on purpose: no board company priced in the last 30 days or sits in its first trading week. Anthropic is expected to be the next one, reported for the week of November 16, 2026.
In orbit
Public for less than 12 months and still tracked. Names graduate off the board at 12 months.
SpaceX (including SpaceXAI, the former xAI)
SPCX · Nasdaq
Consumer and otherFiledUnited States
Listed June 12, 2026 at $135 a share, a valuation of about $1.77 trillion. The raise size is contested: $75 billion in tracker tallies, $85.7 billion in one press account.
Why people are watching: The largest IPO on record, and the only public vehicle bundling rockets, satellite internet and a frontier AI lab.
What could go wrong: A listing valuation near $1.77 trillion leaves no room for ordinary disappointment, and the AI division burns cash on compute while the launch business carries its own execution risk.
Listing: Form S-1 filed 2026-05-20; listed on Nasdaq on 2026-06-12 at $135 a share, implying a valuation of about $1.77 trillion
Terms: Raise reported at $75 billion by Dealroom and IPO tracker tallies, and at $85.7 billion in a New York Times account. The figures could not be reconciled in this pass; the board carries the listing facts and flags the raise as contested.
Key facts: SpaceX acquired xAI in an all stock deal on 2026-02-02 at a reported $250 billion value for xAI; xAI was renamed SpaceXAI in July 2026. SpaceX reported AI revenue of $7.6 billion in Q3 2026, mostly from renting computing capacity (Reuters, 2026-10-20).
Venue: Nasdaq
Layer note: Space launch and satellite internet; it now also houses an AI lab and a very large GPU fleet.
Verification: VERIFIED for the listing; REPORTED and CONTESTED for the raise size
Sources:
SpaceX final prospectus, SEC, 2026-06-11
Dealroom IPO coverage, 2026-10-28
Reuters reporting via NBC News, 2026-10-20
Cerebras Systems
CBRS · Nasdaq Global Select Market
Chips and hardwareFiledUnited States
Priced May 13, 2026 at $185 a share. Closed at $109.18 on October 30, below the IPO price.
Why people are watching: The largest pure AI chip listing of the year and the clearest public test of whether investors will fund a Nvidia challenger built on a wafer sized chip.
What could go wrong: A large share of contracted obligations traces to one customer relationship, OpenAI, and the stock has already shown how fast scarcity value drains once lockups open.
Listing: Priced 2026-05-13 at $185 a share; first trade 2026-05-14 on Nasdaq. 30 million shares for $5.55 billion, about $6.38 billion including the underwriters extra shares
Key facts: Remaining performance obligations of $25.4 billion at June 2026, a large share tied to a December 2025 master agreement under which OpenAI committed to 750 megawatts of Cerebras inference capacity.
First day: Opened at $350, closed at $311.07, up 68 percent
Since listing: Closed at $109.18 on 2026-10-30, below the IPO price, after a first earnings report cut the gross margin outlook and staggered lockup expirations released insider shares. Q3 2026 results scheduled 2026-11-12; final lockup tranche expires around 2026-11-09 to 2026-11-10.
Underwriters: Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays, UBS
Venue: Nasdaq Global Select Market
Verification: VERIFIED
Sources:
Cerebras pricing and closing announcements, 2026-05-13
Data Center Dynamics earnings coverage, 2026-11-01
Startup Fortune lockup analysis, 2026-11-01
Zhipu AI (now Z.ai)
2513.HK · Hong Kong Stock Exchange
AI labsFiledChina
Listed in Hong Kong on January 8, 2026 at HK$116.20. Closed at HK$460.80 on October 22, about four times the offer price and about 84 percent below its peak.
Why people are watching: The first large language model company to list anywhere in the world, beating every US lab to the market.
What could go wrong: Entity List status restricts access to advanced chips, and the company has previously limited new signups when compute ran short.
Listing: Hong Kong Stock Exchange, code 2513, on 2026-01-08, at an offer price of HK$116.20; raised about HK$4.35 billion, roughly $560 million; IPO valuation roughly HK$51.2 billion to HK$55.5 billion, about $6.6 billion to $7.1 billion
Key facts: Tsinghua University spinout, builder of the GLM model family. On the US Entity List since January 2025.
First day: Opened at HK$120, a modest gain; the Hong Kong public tranche was subscribed more than 1,100 times
Since listing: Market value passed HK$1 trillion at the June 2026 peak. Closed at HK$460.80 on 2026-10-22, about four times the offer price and about 84 percent below the 52 week high. Completed a follow on placement of about HK$31.4 billion in 2026.
Venue: Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Verification: VERIFIED
Sources:
HKEX listing record via multiple profiles, 2026-01-08
Baker McKenzie placement release, 2026-07-01
Gate market data coverage, 2026-10-22
MiniMax Group
0100.HK · Hong Kong Stock Exchange
AI labsFiledChina
Listed in Hong Kong on January 9, 2026 at HK$165. Closed at HK$160.70 on October 22, just below the offer price after peaking at HK$1,330.
Why people are watching: A consumer AI lab that listed a day after Zhipu and briefly traded at a market value above HK$100 billion.
What could go wrong: Reported 2025 revenue of about $79 million against a market value that spent months above 150 times that figure, with thin gross margins for a model company.
Listing: Hong Kong Stock Exchange, code 0100, on 2026-01-09, at an offer price of HK$165; raised HK$4.82 billion, roughly $619 million; Reuters estimated the offer valued the company near $6.5 billion
Key facts: Consumer facing lab behind the Talkie companion app and the Hailuo multimodal models. Reported 2025 revenue of about $79 million, up about 159 percent, with more than 70 percent from outside China.
First day: Closed at HK$345, up 109 percent
Since listing: Peaked at HK$1,330 in March 2026; closed at HK$160.70 on 2026-10-22, just below the offer price. Returned to market in July 2026 with a share placing and HK$6.5 billion of convertible bonds.
Venue: Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Verification: VERIFIED for the listing; REPORTED for the IPO valuation estimate
Sources:
HKEX listing record via Reuters filing coverage, 2026-01-09
DeadRisk listing record, 2026-10-22
CryptoBriefing follow on coverage, 2026-07-09
Xanadu Quantum Technologies
XNDU · Nasdaq
Chips and hardwareFiledCanada🍁 Canada
Public since March 27, 2026 via a SPAC merger, not a traditional IPO, dual listed in Toronto and on Nasdaq. The merger valued it at $3 billion pre money.
Why people are watching: The first publicly traded pure play photonic quantum computing company, designing its chips in Toronto.
What could go wrong: Quantum revenue is still small and milestone driven; the company stages fault tolerance as a 2028 to 2029 goal, so the public price rests on technical delivery years away.
Listing: Public via a business combination with Crane Harbor Acquisition Corp., a SPAC, closed March 2026; trading began 2026-03-27 on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange. This was a SPAC merger, not a traditional IPO, and the board entry says so.
Terms: The merger valued Xanadu at a $3 billion pre money valuation when announced in November 2025; the transaction generated $302 million in gross proceeds (company releases).
Since listing: Announced up to C$195 million of Canadian government investment in August 2026 and a DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative contract extension in October 2026 (company releases).
Venue: Nasdaq and Toronto Stock Exchange
Layer note: Photonic quantum computing hardware and software.
Canada tie in: Toronto headquartered. A Canada map tie in: a listed Canadian quantum computing name, dual listed on the TSX.
Priced May 12, 2026 at $27 a share. Closed at $13.75 on October 9, about half the IPO price.
Why people are watching: The first large listed pure play on enhanced geothermal, and its headline customer story is now data center power rather than utility power.
What could go wrong: Its plant can be built on time and still be stranded by third party transmission lines, the exact risk now in shareholder litigation.
Listing: IPO priced at $27 a share on 2026-05-12 to 2026-05-13, Nasdaq. Gross proceeds reported between about $1.89 billion (70 million shares) and about $2.2 billion (80.5 million shares). The board carries the range; see flags.
First day: Opened near $35 after the deal was upsized; traded above $40 shortly after
Since listing: Closed at $13.75 on 2026-10-09, about half the IPO price, after Q2 2026 disclosure of transmission curtailment risk cut 2027 revenue guidance to $60 million to $80 million. Announced a 396 MW power agreement with Google on 2026-09-01 for data center supply from 2028. First Cape Station unit declared commercial operation 2026-09-30.
Venue: Nasdaq
Verification: VERIFIED for the IPO; CONTESTED for share count and total proceeds
Sources:
GlobeNewswire pricing summaries, 2026-09-08
Hagens Berman investigation summary of IPO documents, 2026-10-01
Fervo company Q2 2026 results, 2026-08-12
Standard Nuclear
STDN · New York Stock Exchange
Energy and powerFiledUnited States
Priced July 15, 2026 at $15 a share, below the filed $18 to $21 range, raising $150 million.
Why people are watching: The first pure nuclear fuel IPO of this cycle, reaching the public market about two years after founding.
What could go wrong: No small modular reactor is commercially operating in the United States yet, so its customers timelines are its timeline.
Listing: S-1 filed 2026-07-07. Priced 2026-07-15 at $15 a share, below the filed $18 to $21 range, downsized to 10 million shares, raising $150 million. Began trading on the NYSE on 2026-07-16; completion announced 2026-07-17.
Key facts: Maker of TRISO fuel for small modular reactors, based in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, founded in 2024. Booked about $3 million of revenue in the twelve months to 2026-03-31.
First day: Fell about 18 percent
Underwriters: BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, UBS, Evercore ISI, RBC Capital Markets, William Blair, Stifel
Venue: New York Stock Exchange
Verification: VERIFIED
Sources:
Standard Nuclear pricing release, 2026-07-15
Renaissance Capital IPO tracker, 2026-07-15
Unitree Robotics
688836 · Shanghai Stock Exchange, STAR Market
Consumer and otherFiledChina
Listed in Shanghai on August 19, 2026 at RMB 150.80. Traded near RMB 426.98 on October 16, about 183 percent above the offer price.
Why people are watching: The first mainland listed humanoid robot company, shipping thousands of robots a year at prices far below Western rivals.
What could go wrong: Its filings show most humanoid revenue still comes from research and education buyers, and profit excluding one time items fell in the first half of 2026 even as revenue grew.
Listing: Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market, code 688836, on 2026-08-19, at an offer price of RMB 150.80. About 40.45 million shares raised about RMB 6.1 billion, roughly $900 million, valuing the company near RMB 61 billion at issue, about $9 billion.
First day: Opened at RMB 1,100 and closed at RMB 845, up about 460 percent
Since listing: Traded near RMB 426.98 on 2026-10-16, about half the first day close and about 183 percent above the offer price.
Venue: Shanghai Stock Exchange, STAR Market
Layer note: Robotics hardware: quadruped and humanoid robots.
Verification: VERIFIED
Key facts: STAR Market shares are not available to most foreign investors; no US listing or ADR.
Sources:
Shanghai Stock Exchange listing record via Associated Press figures, 2026-08-19
SimianX debut analysis, 2026-08-20
MEKAWIRE filing profile, 2026-10-02
In the hangar
Still private: credible reporting of IPO preparation, or a plausible candidate by scale alone. Each card says which.
OpenAI
AI labsReportedUnited States
Last closed mark: $852 billion post money (March 2026 round). A further round at a reported $1.25 trillion is in talks, not closed.
Why people are watching: At $852 billion it is the second largest private company story in the world, and Anthropic pricing first will set the reference price for its own eventual deal.
What could go wrong: Reported figures show deep operating losses against the valuation, and reporting describes an internal bar of listing only at $1 trillion or more. If public markets will not pay the private mark, the hangar stay gets longer.
Filing: Confidential draft registration statement confirmed submitted to the SEC on 2026-06-08. No public S-1, no venue, no ticker.
Timing: Company guided, reported: CEO Sam Altman said in September 2026 that a listing is not happening in 2026; CFO Sarah Friar told employees the company will be public in 2027, or sooner only if growth keeps inflecting.
Key facts: Bloomberg reported talks in late September and October 2026 for a further private round of about $30 billion at a $1.25 trillion pre money valuation, described as a bridge to an eventual IPO. No closing announced.
Key facts: Credible preparation: a confidential draft registration statement was confirmed on 2026-06-08. The filing is not public, so the name stays in the hangar, closest to the pad.
Verification: VERIFIED for the confidential filing and the closed round; REPORTED for later valuation talks
Sources:
OpenAI statements via CNBC and press, 2026-06-08
Allium valuation analysis of the March 2026 round, 2026-10-17
Bloomberg Technology reporting, 2026-10-23
Databricks
AI labsReportedUnited States
Last mark: $190 billion (round closed August 13, 2026).
Why people are watching: The largest private enterprise software company in the AI stack, and by its own reporting cash flow positive, which makes it the cleanest eventual listing story on this side of the board.
What could go wrong: Private rounds at rising marks reduce the need to list at all. The longer it waits, the more the eventual IPO price has to justify a $190 billion starting point.
Key facts: Annualized revenue run rate above $7 billion, growth above 80 percent, adjusted cash flow positive on a trailing twelve month basis by company reporting.
Timing: Company guided, reported: CEO Ali Ghodsi called 2026 a terrible year to go public in June 2026 and pointed to 2027 or later in August 2026. No date set.
Key facts: Candidate by scale. No filing, public or confirmed confidential, as of October 2026.
Layer note: Enterprise data and AI platform software, not a model lab. No cleaner layer exists in the current taxonomy.
Verification: VERIFIED for the latest round
Sources:
Reuters round report, 2026-08-13
SmartAsset IPO status summary of SEC records, 2026-10-21
Moonshot AI
AI labsReportedChina
Last reported mark: about $50 billion (final pre IPO round, early October 2026). Reported raise target: about $3 billion.
Why people are watching: It would be the third Chinese lab to list in Hong Kong, and the first to price after investors have seen how Zhipu and MiniMax traded.
What could go wrong: Both listed peers fell more than 80 percent from their peaks within months. Moonshot prices into that record, plus US scrutiny of Chinese model distillation practices, which the company denies.
Filing: Confidential A1 application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, reported September 2026
Terms: Reported raise target of about $3 billion. Nothing filed publicly.
Key facts: Kimi K3, released July 2026 as a very large open weight model, pushed reported annualized revenue from about $300 million toward a reported run rate above $1 billion by August 2026.
Timing: Listing as early as Q1 2027, reported, subject to HKEX review after an onshore restructuring of its corporate structure.
Key facts: Credible preparation: a confidential Hong Kong filing is reported by Reuters and SCMP. Nothing is public, so it stays in the hangar.
Underwriters: Goldman Sachs, CICC, Deutsche Bank
Venue: Hong Kong Stock Exchange (reported)
Verification: REPORTED throughout; the company has declined to comment
Sources:
Reuters reporting via AdValorem Insights, 2026-09-04
AlphaSense IPO preview, 2026-09-30
Models brief, Capernaum, 2026-10-06
Cohere
AI labsReportedCanada🍁 Canada
Last mark: C$35.7 billion, about US$25.5 billion (Series E first close, October 29, 2026).
Why people are watching: Canada's flagship AI company, selling sovereign AI to governments and regulated industries, now with the Canadian state on the shareholder register.
What could go wrong: Reported revenue is small against a C$35.7 billion mark, and the planned Aleph Alpha combination adds cross border integration risk.
Key facts: Company reported annual recurring revenue growth of 165 percent year over year to Q3 2026 and a customer count up twentyfold to about 300. Cohere committed to a Canadian headquarters and C$1.7 billion of Canadian compute investment by 2030, and plans to complete a combination with Aleph Alpha of Germany.
Timing: None announced. One analyst commentary piece models a late 2027 listing; that is commentary, not company guidance.
Key facts: Candidate by scale. No IPO filing, bank mandate or announced process found in this pass.
Canada tie in: Toronto headquartered, and now partly owned by the Government of Canada. The Canada map tie in is direct: a future Cohere listing would be the Canada map's anchor story.
Verification: VERIFIED for the funding; analyst IPO timing is commentary only
Sources:
Cohere Series E announcement, 2026-10-29
Slator coverage of the announcement, 2026-11-02
Tenstorrent
Chips and hardwareReportedUnited States🍁 Canada
Last mark: $6.2 billion post money (Series E, October 19, 2026).
Why people are watching: One of the most decorated chip architects alive runs it, and it is the best funded independent attempt at an open alternative to Nvidia hardware.
What could go wrong: Revenue is undisclosed, manufacturing depends on Samsung, and public investors have already marked down Cerebras, its closest listed cousin, by roughly two thirds from its debut close.
Key facts: Led by CEO Jim Keller. One architecture sold from a desktop card to Galaxy server racks, plus design licensing. Chips manufactured by Samsung.
Timing: None. Reporting in 2026 described takeover interest from Intel and Qualcomm at valuations up to about $5 billion; the company raised instead and stayed independent, and declined to comment on the reporting.
Key facts: Candidate by scale. No IPO filing or announced process reported.
Canada tie in: Canada tie in by origin: founded in Toronto in 2016. Current headquarters is Santa Clara per its own October 2026 release, so the board labels it founded in Toronto and nothing stronger.
Verification: VERIFIED for the funding
Sources:
Tenstorrent Series E announcement via ACN Newswire, 2026-10-19
Reuters reporting via Medium summary, 2026-10-20
Stripe
Consumer and otherReportedUnited States
Last company mark: $159 billion (employee tender, February 2026). Secondary platforms implied roughly $170 billion to $184 billion later in 2026.
Why people are watching: The longest running will they or won't they story in fintech, with each annual tender resetting the price without a listing.
What could go wrong: Nothing forces this listing. Tenders can substitute for an IPO for years, so the risk for watchers is time, not collapse.
Key facts: Businesses on Stripe processed $1.9 trillion of payment volume in 2025, up 34 percent (company annual letter).
Timing: None. Stripe's president said in February 2026 there was no imminent IPO; co founder John Collison has called an IPO a solution in search of a problem for a self funding business.
Key facts: Candidate by scale. The company says a listing is not imminent and has filed nothing.
Layer note: Payments and financial infrastructure. The board's one deliberate non AI entry, included because of its scale and because AI labs and AI commerce run on its billing rails. The board should state this on its face.
Verification: VERIFIED for the tender valuation
Sources:
CNBC tender report, 2026-02-24
SmartAsset IPO status summary, 2026-10-16
Waabi
AI labsReportedCanada🍁 Canada
Verified fact: a $750 million Series C closed in January 2026. A valuation near $3 billion appears in secondary coverage only.
Why people are watching: A simulation first bet on autonomous driving from one of the field's best known researchers, Raquel Urtasun, with Uber, Volvo and Nvidia's venture arm as backers.
What could go wrong: Autonomous trucking timelines have slipped across the industry for a decade, the robotaxi capital is milestone based rather than in hand, and disclosed road operations remain one Texas corridor.
Timing: None. Commercial freight operations run on the Dallas to Houston corridor; the robotaxi program is still ahead.
Key facts: Candidate by scale, small end. No IPO plan stated.
Terms: $750 million Series C closed January 2026, co led by Khosla Ventures and G2 Venture Partners, plus up to $250 million of milestone based Uber investment tied to deploying at least 25,000 Waabi powered robotaxis over time (company announcement, 2026-01-28).
Layer note: Physical AI: self driving systems for trucks and robotaxis.
Canada tie in: Toronto headquartered. A Canada map tie in: the largest single raise in Canadian tech history at announcement.
Verification: VERIFIED for the funding; REPORTED and thin for the valuation
Sources:
Waabi funding announcement, 2026-01-28
TechCrunch coverage, 2026-01-28
StockAnalysis private company profile, 2026-11-02
DeepSeek
AI labsRumouredChina
Reported only, thin sourcing: a first outside round in June 2026 was said to value it above RMB 350 billion, about $49 billion. Carry with care.
Why people are watching: Its open weight models reset global expectations for training cost in 2025, and it remains the largest unlisted Chinese lab by reported value.
What could go wrong: Founder control and a research first culture may keep it private indefinitely, and US export controls shape its compute access.
Timing: None reported.
Key facts: Candidate by scale only. No IPO filing and no credible IPO reporting found in this pass.
Verification: REPORTED and thin; no primary source found in this pass
Sources:
Second Talent Chinese AI roundup, 2026-09-14
One honest gap: the Security layer has no entries this cycle. No security company of AI economy scale filed or listed inside the board windows, so the layer stays on the board, empty, rather than being filled with a weak name. Layers follow the Atlas maps; the one deliberate non AI entry, Stripe, says so on its own card.
Left the board
xAI (now SpaceXAI)
Removed from the pre IPO watch: it no longer exists as an independent company. SpaceX acquired xAI in an all stock deal on 2026-02-02 at a reported $250 billion value for xAI, four weeks after xAI closed a $20 billion Series E at a reported $230 billion valuation in January 2026. Renamed SpaceXAI in July 2026. Exposure is now through listed SpaceX, Nasdaq: SPCX, which is on this board in orbit.
CoreWeave
Listed on Nasdaq in March 2025 and has passed the board's 12 month orbit window. Graduated, not dropped.
Data as of November 2, 2026, from SEC filings, exchange calendars and company announcements. Rumoured items are labelled as such. The board classifies facts only: no ratings, no price targets, no buy or sell language. Educational only, not investment advice.