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Hey everyone,
Happy Tuesday! ☕
Alberto here, and I need to tell you about something that's going to dominate headlines for the next 12 months, but by the time most people understand it, the opportunity will be gone.
Three of the most valuable private companies on Earth just confirmed they're going public in 2026. And we're not talking about normal IPOs.
We're talking about the largest liquidity event in venture capital history.
⏱️ Read time: 5 minutes
Let's break down what's actually happening — and why the people who wait for the IPO are going to miss everything.
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The Big Three: $3.6 Trillion Worth of "Public Debuts"
Here's what just got confirmed in the last 30 days:
SpaceX: June 2026
Target Valuation: $1.5 trillion
Recent Secondary Price: $800 billion
What Changed: Elon Musk confirmed the timeline is "accurate" — they're raising $30B+ for space-based data centers
OpenAI: Late 2026
Target Valuation: $1 trillion
Current Valuation: $500 billion
What Changed: Completed restructuring from non-profit to for-profit, clearing the path to IPO
Anthropic: 2026 (TBD)
Target Valuation: $300-350 billion
Recent Raise: $30B at $380B valuation
What Changed: Hired Wilson Sonsini (top IPO law firm) to prepare filing
Combined potential raise: More than the entire 2025 US IPO market.
Combined valuation: Larger than the GDP of most countries.
Here's The Problem Nobody's Talking About
Let me show you the math that VCs don't want you to see.
SpaceX Valuation History:
2015: $10 billion (Google invested here)
2020: $74 billion
2024: $350 billion
February 2026: $800 billion (secondary market)
June 2026 IPO target: $1.5 trillion
If you invested at the IPO at $1.5 trillion, and SpaceX doubles over the next 5 years, you make 2x your money.
If you invested in 2020 at $74 billion, you've already made 20x your money before the IPO even happened.
That's the game.
OpenAI Tells The Same Story:
2019: $1 billion valuation
2023: $29 billion
2024: $157 billion
Late 2025: $500 billion
2026 IPO target: $1 trillion
The wealth wasn't created when ChatGPT went viral. It was created when early investors got in at $1B, $10B, $30B.
By the time you read about it in The Wall Street Journal, you're buying at the peak.
Why This Is The Biggest Liquidity Event In VC History
Let's put some numbers on this.
If SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic all IPO in 2026 as planned:
💰 $700 billion+ returned to venture capital LPs
📊 20% of total private venture fair market value ($2.9T) liquidated
🏆 Larger than the entire dot-com boom's peak year
Wellington Management called this "the first truly broad-based reopening of the IPO market in years."
Translation: The exit window is finally open. And everyone with private shares is going to cash out.
But Here's The Catch
Every single institutional investor — the VCs, the growth equity firms, the late-stage funds — they all got in before you.
Google invested in SpaceX at $10B in 2015 → Now worth $800B = 80x return
Sequoia invested in OpenAI early → Estimated 100x+ return
GIC and Coatue led Anthropic's latest round → Already up 3-5x in 18 months
The public market investors? They get whatever's left.
The Uncomfortable Truth About IPOs
Here's what nobody tells you about "exciting IPOs":
The Facebook IPO (2012): $104 billion valuation
Early investors who got in at $500M-$15B valuations made 10x-200x. Public investors who bought at IPO? They're up about 5x over 12 years. Good, but not generational wealth.
The Alibaba IPO (2014): $168 billion valuation
Early investors like SoftBank made 2,000x+. IPO investors are up about 2x (if they're still holding).
The Airbnb IPO (2020): $100 billion valuation
Early Sequoia investment made 300x+. IPO investors are basically flat.
See the pattern?
The real money gets made in private markets.
The IPO is the exit — for early investors. Not the entrance — for you.
What's Different This Time
Here's where it gets interesting.
These three companies represent something we haven't seen before: They're going public while still growing at venture-scale rates.
OpenAI: $20B annual revenue run-rate, still growing 3-4x per year
Anthropic: $26B projected 2026 revenue, 3x year-over-year growth
SpaceX: $8B profit on $15-16B revenue, Starlink adding 9M subscribers
They're not going public because they need capital. They're going public because:
Early investors want liquidity after 10-15 years
Employees want to cash out stock options
The market is finally ready to handle trillion-dollar tech companies
But that doesn't mean you should wait for the IPO to invest.
In fact, it means the exact opposite.
📈 Here's What You Can Do About It
This is exactly why Founderscrowd exists.
We partner with 50+ active venture capital firms to bring you access to pre-IPO opportunities that most investors will never see.
Here's what Premium members get:
✅ Direct access to secondary market opportunities in companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, and other pre-IPO giants
✅ Weekly vetted investment deals with full analyst reports and due diligence
✅ Minimums starting at $100-$1,000 (vs. typical $100K+ institutional minimums)
✅ First look at VC fund partnerships that provide earlier access than public markets
✅ Real-time alerts when new pre-IPO opportunities open up
The SpaceX secondary opportunity is live right now through our Republic partnership.
The Anthropic access is coming through our VC partnerships as they prepare their filing.
Databricks, Stripe, and other $100B+ companies regularly make shares available to our community before IPO.
But opportunities like this don't last. SpaceX's last secondary window closed in 72 hours. Anthropic's allocation got oversubscribed in 48 hours.
When these companies announce their IPO dates, the private access closes forever.
Founderscrowd Premium is normally $120/month.
Beta pricing is still $40/month.
For less than the cost of two coffees a week, you get access to the same pre-IPO deals that created generational wealth for early Google, Facebook, and Amazon investors.
Where The Smart Money Is Positioned
While everyone's waiting for the IPO announcements, here's what's actually happening:
The Secondary Market Is On Fire
SpaceX shares trade regularly on secondary markets. Right now, they're going for around the $800B valuation — half of the expected IPO price.
Anthropic secondaries are happening through VC fund partnerships at valuations 20-30% below the IPO target.
OpenAI? Same story. Employees and early investors are selling stakes to growth funds and family offices at discounts to the eventual IPO valuation.
This is the window.
Not when CNBC announces the IPO.
Not when your broker sends you an email alert.
Not when your coworker texts you "Should I buy?"
Right now. In the secondary markets. Through VC partnerships. Before the ticker symbol exists.
Alberto's Take
I've been watching this setup for 18 months, and it's finally happening.
The three most hyped companies in private markets are all going public in the same year. The media is going to go absolutely insane. CNBC will have countdowns. Your friends will ask if they should buy. Your family will send you articles.
And by the time that happens, the smart money will have already exited.
Here's what people don't understand about IPOs: They're not designed for you to make money. They're designed for early investors to take money off the table.
When Google went public at $85 per share in 2004, it seemed expensive. It was. For the public market. But early investors who got in at $0.30 per share? They made 280x before IPO.
When Facebook went public at $104B, it seemed expensive. It was. But Accel's early investment returned 100x+ before IPO day.
The pattern is the same every time:
Early investors get in at $1B-$10B valuations
Company grows to $100B-$500B in private markets
VCs make 10x-100x returns
They announce IPO to create exit liquidity
Public investors buy at peak valuations
Early investors sell and rotate into the next early-stage deal
You don't have to play that game anymore.
The secondary market, the VC partnerships, the democratization of private investing — it's all creating a window that didn't exist 5 years ago.
SpaceX at $800B sounds expensive until you realize it's going to IPO at $1.5T in four months.
Anthropic at $380B sounds expensive until you remember OpenAI is targeting $1T and Anthropic is arguably the better business.
The question isn't "Is this expensive?"
The question is "Where will this be valued in 18 months when it's public, and how do I get positioned before that happens?"
That's the game we're playing.
See you Thursday for the next deep dive.
Stay sharp,
Alberto
P.S. If SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic all successfully IPO in 2026, venture capital will return more money to investors than any single year in history. That capital gets recycled into new early-stage deals. Which means 2027-2028 could be the best vintage for early-stage investing we've seen in a decade.
We'll be tracking that too.
💬 QUICK HITS
🚀 Databricks "ready to IPO whenever" — CFO confirmed in Feb 2026, $134B valuation
🤖 Discord filed confidentially — Gaming chat app valued at $15B, 200M+ users
💰 Kraken targeting Q1 2026 — Crypto exchange planning $20B+ listing
🛡️ Anduril defense tech IPO watch — Autonomous weapons platform valued at $14B+
Disclaimer: The information provided in this newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investing in startups and private companies involves significant risk, including the potential loss of principal. Readers