Investors could soon have far more options in the stock market as a wave of new public listings gathers pace in the United States. According to Bloomberg, companies are preparing to issue roughly $1.5 trillion worth of new shares over the next two years, marking a sharp increase in equity supply after years of relative scarcity.
The trend involves the most talked-about private firms in the world, like SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic. With more money coming in through newly public stocks, there might be good investment options in the public market that could compete against other investments like cryptocurrencies.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted the shift on X, noting that 160 companies have already announced plans to go public and are expected to raise more than $120 billion. That amount is higher than the combined total raised over the previous two years. Estimates from JPMorgan Chase & Co. suggest net equity issuance could accelerate to its fastest pace in more than two decades.
For much of the past decade, U.S. companies supported stock prices by buying back their own shares, reducing the amount of stock available to investors. Bloomberg reported that S&P 500 companies alone removed nearly $12 trillion worth of shares from public markets through buyback programs, creating what market strategist Robert Buckland described as a period of “de-equitization.”
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“De-equitization was QE for the stock market,” Buckland said. “This is aggressive equitization.”
That dynamic is now changing. Companies are increasingly turning to public markets to raise capital, reversing a trend that had limited the supply of shares for years. The shift comes as businesses seek funding for growth plans, acquisitions and other corporate needs.
The change marks a sharp break from recent years, when stock buybacks often outweighed new share issuance. As more companies prepare to sell shares to investors, the supply of publicly traded stock is set to expand significantly, bringing an end to a period that was largely defined by scarcity.
The expected wave of new stock offerings could have a broader impact on financial markets by giving investors more places to put their money. As companies return to public markets in larger numbers, some analysts believe a portion of investor capital could shift away from existing stocks and other risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
Crypto market participants have paid particular attention to potential listings involving SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic. Some investors argue that high-profile offerings from companies of that scale could attract capital that might otherwise flow into digital assets.
Alex Good, founder of crypto AI project Post Fiat, pointed to that possibility during a recent interview on CounterParty TV. “After the SpaceX IPO, I think you start to get very bearish equities. That’s the Solana $300 moment,” he said.
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