After two quiet years in the IPO markets, 2025 is shaping up to be a landmark year for public debuts, especially for tech and AI-driven firms. As interest rates stabilize and investor confidence returns post-2023 market volatility, an emerging cohort of companies is preparing for Wall Street. According to Crunchbase’s 2025 IPO outlook, market watchers expect at least 10 major IPOs from venture-backed firms with billion-dollar-plus valuations, signaling a revitalized appetite in public equities — especially those with strong fundamentals and AI/data advantages.
Key Drivers Behind 2025’s IPO Boom
The momentum behind 2025’s IPO pipeline owes much to evolving macroeconomic and technological dynamics. First, the Federal Reserve’s shift toward rate cuts — hinted at by Chair Jerome Powell in their March 2025 update — could lower the cost of capital and reignite investor enthusiasm (CNBC Markets). Second, artificial intelligence remains a tailwind; rapidly maturing generative AI capabilities, combined with rising enterprise demand for AI-driven automation, customer service, and predictive analytics, have propelled previously niche companies into scalable frontrunners.
Moreover, companies are watching the successful 2024 IPOs of firms like Astera Labs, Reddit, and Ibotta as proxies. Their relative post-IPO performance shows a stabilizing listing environment. Goldman Sachs estimates that total proceeds from U.S. IPOs could exceed $50 billion in 2025, nearly double 2024’s volume (MarketWatch).
14 Companies to Watch for Potential IPOs in 2025
The following companies span diverse industries but share common traits: strong growth, meaningful market share, AI integration, and a pathway to profitability. Most are valued at over $1 billion and have been backed by top-tier VCs.
| Company | Sector | Estimated Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Databricks | AI/Big Data | $43B (2025) |
| Stripe | Fintech | $50B+ |
| Social Media | Public in 2024 ($5.4B) | |
| Anthropic | AI Foundation Model | $18.4B |
| Plaid | Fintech Infrastructure | $13.4B |
| OpenAI (potential) | AI/Platform-as-a-Service | $86B (partnership-based) |
| Rippling | HR Tech & SaaS | $11.25B |
| Canva | Design SaaS | $26B |
| OneTrust | Privacy/Compliance Tech | $5.3B |
| CoreWeave | Cloud Infrastructure (GPU) | $19B (2025) |
| Glean | Enterprise AI Search | $2.2B |
| AI21 Labs | GenAI/NLP | $1.4B |
| Anduril | Defense Tech/AI | $9B |
| SambaNova Systems | AI Hardware | $5B |
AI and Infrastructure: IPO Core Themes in 2025
AI continues to dominate investment forecasts; seven of the 14 potential IPOs above are directly related to artificial intelligence, from model providers (Anthropic, AI21, OpenAI) to infra-backers (CoreWeave, SambaNova). Generative AI providers are receiving particularly bullish traction following the commercial explosion of tools like ChatGPT and Claude 3. According to NVIDIA’s March 2025 report, over 65% of data center spend in Q1 2025 is tied to AI workloads, fueling demand for infrastructure providers such as CoreWeave, which now leases NVIDIA H100 GPUs to major AI developers at scale.
On the application layer, companies like Glean and Rippling are marrying AI with enterprise usability — offering copilots for workplace management and internal search optimization. McKinsey’s Q2 2025 study on AI adoption in enterprise forecasts that 40% of U.S. companies will deploy AI internal tools by year’s end (McKinsey Global Institute).
Fintech and Compliance: Resilient Long-Term Bets
Stripe and Plaid continue to be fintech unicorns to watch. Stripe’s 2025 IPO plans are supported by a continuation of digital payments proliferation, with platforms like Shopify and Apple Pay still driving revenue growth. According to The Motley Fool, Stripe handled nearly $1 trillion in payments globally in 2024, suggesting scale-level profitability may no longer be elusive.
OneTrust, a lesser-publicized compliance platform, may benefit from rising regulation around AI, privacy, and ESG. Following the FTC’s latest ruling on AI usage disclosures in early May 2025 (FTC News), enterprise demand for tools that ensure legal compliance with evolving digital standards is booming — a trend also noted on DeepMind’s corporate AI governance blog (DeepMind Blog).
Risks, Timing, and Liquidity Conditions
Although signals for a strong IPO cycle are visible, risks remain. Market volatility — as seen during the surprise inflation spike in April 2025 — can quickly delay offerings. Geopolitical issues, including shifts in tech export policies to Asia or regulatory scrutiny around defense tech (impacting Anduril), might affect sentiment. Furthermore, companies tied to generative AI face model commoditization risk. As open models gain traction (as discussed by The Gradient), firms must differentiate beyond LLM outputs.
Liquidity, too, is a gating factor. Pre-IPO capital raises have extended runway for many startups, but investor pressure to exit after long holding windows — some as far back as 2012 (e.g., Stripe) — is creating urgency. LPs want returns, and IPOs remain the cleanest path despite alternative strategies like direct listings or SPAC retrofits mostly falling out of favor (Investopedia).
Final Thoughts: The Strategic Future of Public Financing
2025 may mark the year technology IPOs return to center stage, but with a new formula: AI as core infrastructure, efficient go-to-market strategies, and transparent business models. These are not the cash-burning plays of pre-2020. Instead, investors appear to be rewarding startups blending technical innovation with operational scalability. Companies with strong enterprise footholds, regulatory compliance strategies, and infrastructure defensibility will drive public markets into a new phase of tech investing maturity.
While some of these anticipated IPOs will slip into 2026 or later, the forward momentum suggests structural demand for innovative capital access vehicles. If private-to-public transitions go smoothly, innovation velocity may actually increase — giving more room for IPO-ready firms to plan with confidence.