• D.C.
  • BXL
  • Lagos
  • Riyadh
  • Beijing
  • SG

Intelligence for the New World Economy

  • D.C.
  • BXL
  • Lagos
Semafor Logo
  • Riyadh
  • Beijing
  • SG


Flagship newsletter icon
From Semafor Flagship
In your inbox, Every Weekday
Sign up

2026 set to be a bumper year for M&A, IPOs

Jan 2, 2026, 6:22am EST
PostEmailWhatsapp
SpaceX logo and miniature satellite model.
Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters

The coming year will likely see a bumper set of public offerings and M&A deals, analysts forecast.

Three major US tech giants — AI firms Anthropic and OpenAI, as well as Elon Musk’s SpaceX — are gearing up for IPOs, with their combined debuts expected to outpace the value of around 200 US IPOs last year, the Financial Times estimated.

In Hong Kong, meanwhile, the stock market debuts for three Chinese tech giants are set to raise upwards of $1 billion this month. And in more good news for bankers and lawyers, the US is expecting a wave of huge acquisitions, driven in large part by C-suite bullishness, The Wall Street Journal said.

A chart showing the global M&A volume.
AD