Wall Street IPO activity has slowed to a trickle as investor demand for new
issues weakens amid concerns about elevated valuations, pressing what had been
expected to be a busy quarter. Delays to Anthropic and OpenAI listings have
dented equity capital markets sentiment. The head of equity capital markets at a
large U.S. asset manager said: "Nobody cares about any company other than
Anthropic right now." Investment bankers' strong fee income this year has
largely reflected SpaceX's June IPO. Bankers said fears of an AI downturn and
public opposition to data centers have left the IPO market essentially stalled
in recent weeks. Investors are increasingly questioning out-of-touch valuations
assigned to AI-linked companies. BCA Research shows tech companies that listed
this year have fallen about 23% on average since their first trading day, adding
to concerns that banks may have priced deals too aggressively to win mandates.
