US markets are close to ending more than two decades of declining equity supply as a trio of mega initial public offerings brings a flood of new shares that investors warn could strain the limits of demand.
The listing plans of SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI come as Wall Street’s existing Big Tech groups look to multibillion-dollar share sales to fund their vast AI spending, in a reversal of decades of share buybacks that have helped US stocks more than triple in price since 2016.
Goldman Sachs estimates net supply of equity in the US — measured by new shares hitting the market less equity removed by buybacks or companies going private — will be almost flat in 2026, having been in negative territory since 2003. The bank expects an even greater influx of new shares in 2027, as lock-up periods on this year’s IPOs expire.