The venture-backed IPO market has roared back to life in 2026, headlined by SpaceX’s record $1.77 trillion IPO, but the stock performance of newly public companies has been comparably muted.
There have been 44 VC-backed IPOs in the US so far this year, according to new PitchBook data, on track to trounce 2025’s total of 50. In addition to SpaceX—and the planned mega-IPOs of Anthropic and OpenAI—companies including Cerebras, Quantinuum, X-Energy and HawkEye 360 raised significant proceeds, and delivered some long-awaited liquidity to investors.
But the results since haven’t been pretty: SpaceX, as of Thursday’s market close, was trading 30.3% down from its debut, and Cerebras was down 34.7%, even with a 19.9% one-day gain.
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Stocks’ 2026 gains have largely evaporated thanks to Wall Street’s recent concerns over the continued war in Iran and the potential for Chinese chip manufacturers to challenge US incumbents in the race for AI computing power.
The pullbacks point to a gap between high valuations in the late-stage private market and what public investors have been willing to pay.
Several of this year’s debuts share a profile: heavy capital expenditure, long roads to revenue growth, and businesses directly tied to the AI market that continue to rise.
There have been bright spots, including biotech IPOs. A Bloomberg biotech IPO index through July 21 was up 55% this year, outpacing the performance of 2026 AI IPOs. And the overall IPO picture over the last three years has shown resilience. The Renaissance IPO Index, composed of the largest and most liquid US IPOs over the last three years, was up 12.7% on the year through Wednesday, outpacing the S&P 500’s 8.3% increase.
For the startups still lined up behind SpaceX, the IPO aftermath may be a more accurate read of the market than the headline exit values. A record year for liquidity has not been a record year for the stock performance of newly public companies.
This article originally appeared on PitchBook News
