Sky-High I.P.O. Pricing Isn’t Great for Real People

Elon Musk doesn’t think small. Already the richest person in the world, he may soon become the first trillionaire. Mr. Musk is preparing to go public with SpaceX, his rocket and satellite maker, at a total valuation for the company of at least $1.25 trillion, and perhaps substantially more.

The founders of two artificial intelligence companies, OpenAI and Anthropic, are also expected to come out shortly with colossal I.P.O.s of their own. Preliminary accounts give each of those companies a targeted total valuation of $900 billion, give or take a few hundred million dollars.

These are stupendous numbers. Top executives of these companies, like Mr. Musk, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Dario Amodei of Anthropic, stand to unlock great fortunes through these public offerings, and hundreds of other employees will receive bountiful rewards. But for the rest of us — the vast majority of investors who are soon likely to own pieces of these ballyhooed companies through mutual funds, workplace trusts and exchange-traded funds — this is a dangerous moment.

These companies may turn out to have a remarkable future. But for now, at least, don’t get too excited about them as investments.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/business/spacex-openai-anthropic-ipo-invest.html