This year, artificial intelligence moved from hype to hyper-personalisation. Retail brands incorporated AI to offer tailored experiences, tech companies used AI agents to handle workflows, and AI giants such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google drove innovation with GPT-5, Claude 4/4.5, and Gemini 3, respectively.
Meanwhile, something interesting was unfolding on the bourses too.
The US saw its biggest tech IPO since 2021, when CoreWeave, the AI cloud provider backed by Nvidia, became the first pure-play AI company to debut on Nasdaq, raising $1.5 billion this year. Back home, the Securities and Exchange Board of India gave its nod to homegrown AI firm Fractal Analytics’ massive Rs 4,900-crore IPO, positioning it as India’s first pure-play AI company to go public.
If 2025 was the year of AI, could 2026 be the year of AI IPOs? Companies are already laying the groundwork for giga IPOs.
OpenAI is reportedly eyeing a trillion-dollar valuation, looking to raise at least $60 billion by going public. Both Anthropic and AI-focused software company Databricks are widely expected to pursue listings in the US in 2026, reflecting strong investor appetite for AI enterprises. Meanwhile, Chinese AI startups MiniMax, known for its large multimodal models, and Zhipu AI, focused on general language models, are preparing to debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Favourable Conditions
The new year comes on the tailwinds of renewed momentum in 2025, with 18 startups listing on Indian stock exchanges—a 38% improvement year-over-year. Meanwhile, Nasdaq saw a robust demand for growth-oriented stocks, raising $46.65 billion from new listings in 2025.
Plus, technology and AI-linked IPOs have revived confidence in the broader tech IPO cycle.
Saurabh Kumar, partner at Deloitte India, is optimistic about AI startups trying their luck at the bourses. “With the right funding, tech infrastructure support, focus on governance and demonstration of predictable revenue models, investors now understand AI’s long-term value proposition,” he said.
“Moreover, the focus of Indian startups on steady performance and transparency makes them ready to thrive in the long run and scale efficiently. As operational and research demands grow, AI startups may also look into moving from private funding to seeking public investment with their IPO offerings.”
Private markets and strategic investors (VCs, PE) have built up capital that they need to return via IPO exits, creating both pressure and support for listings. But strong late-stage funding for AI firms means companies don’t have to rush public before they’re ready. Also, AI’s broad adoption and clear integration into enterprise IT, software, compute, and cloud infrastructure provide a compelling growth narrative for public investors.
The India Angle
India is still early in the development of pure AI businesses. But experts believe that, with established revenue streams already in place, AI serves only as a valuation multiplier rather than a fundamental risk for these companies. This dynamic makes public markets more inclined to back AI-enabled IT and engineering firms ahead of standalone AI research players.
Apart from Fractal Analytics, which is expected to get listed in the coming year, AI-powered consumer platform InMobi (Glance AI) and Qure.Ai (focused on medical imaging AI used globally) have also expressed their plans to get listed in the future. But getting listed in India is widely different from going public in the US.
Ankit Kedia, Founder and Lead Investor, Capital-A, explained, “The US markets are more receptive to long-term bets that may take time to translate into commercial performance.”
“In India, investors seek clarity on how and when AI converts into revenue because they value commercial maturity and predictable business models. Here, the central question for any company is whether the business is at a stage where retail investors can understand the product, assess the revenue engine, and assign a rational valuation. This discipline influences both timing and approach for any company considering a public listing in India,” he added.
Indian public markets reward fundamentals such as clean governance, consistent reporting, real customers, recurring revenue, predictable cash flows, clarity on IP ownership, and responsible disclosures on risks.
“The VC’s role is to help founders institutionalise these practices early. When governance, reporting discipline, and customer-centric growth become part of the company’s operating rhythm, the path to IPO readiness becomes far more straightforward,” Kedia said.
But is India Ready?
There are enough indicators that prove that the world considers India a major AI hub.
Google announced a $15 billion investment to build a major AI hub in Visakhapatnam, spanning data centres, cloud networking, and AI R&D infrastructure. Recently, Microsoft also committed $17.5 billion to expand cloud and AI infrastructure in India, including hyperscale data centres, sovereign cloud options, and AI skills training for millions. Amazon, one-upped that and announced a massive investment plan of more than $35 billion in India by 2030—one of the largest foreign corporate commitments in the country’s history.
But are Indian homegrown AI companies really IPO-ready?
Ashish Fafadia, Partner, Blume Ventures, doesn’t think so. “There won’t be any wave of IPOs in 2026. At most, a couple of companies here may get listed apart from a few big ones in the US, which are already being talked about. Fractal is a different case. It’s successful and best equipped to use AI and maximise on the use cases.”
According to Fafadia, 2026 will be the year of consolidation. “We have to see that these AI-first companies that have raised capital for crazy valuations bring down those numbers or match up to their valuation in the next 3–4 years. We are looking at businesses with a real application of AI and with a relatively faster vertical specialisation.”
Beyond Big Tech stock pullbacks and profit concerns, there’s also high capital expenditure and debt growth tied to AI data centres and deals. And the fear of the AI bubble still looms large over the IPO momentum.
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