AI Trade Rebounds as OpenAI IPO Buzz and SpaceX Frenzy Fuel Risk Appetite

U.S. stocks moved higher early Tuesday as investors stepped back into technology shares, shaking off recent concerns about the sustainability of the artificial-intelligence trade. The rally came alongside growing excitement around what is rapidly becoming one of the most active periods for technology public offerings in years, led by OpenAI, Anthropic and SpaceX.

Early in the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 244 points, or 0.48%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 206.97 points, or 0.80%. The S&P 500 advanced 44.11 points, or 0.60%. The move was accompanied by a decline in market volatility, with the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, falling 0.99 points, or 5.23%, to 17.93. Oil prices also eased, with Brent crude down $1.93, or 2.05%, to $92.32 per barrel.

The strength in equities follows a period of investor hesitation surrounding the AI trade. According to AInvest, investors had recently rotated away from some of the market's biggest AI winners amid valuation concerns. Tuesday's advance suggested buyers were once again willing to embrace growth-oriented technology names as attention shifted toward the next generation of AI-driven companies preparing to access public markets.

Much of Wall Street's focus remained on OpenAI after the company confidentially filed registration documents for a potential initial public offering. According to this morning's Wedbush Securities research note authored by Dan Ives, the filing came just one week after Anthropic confidentially submitted its own IPO paperwork, signaling what Wedbush called the opening of the IPO floodgates for artificial-intelligence companies. Wedbush noted that OpenAI generated approximately $24 billion in annualized revenue and recently launched GPT-5.5, while investors are eagerly awaiting public disclosure of the company's revenue, margins and infrastructure spending.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the company has begun the formal IPO process, although management emphasized that a public offering may still be some time away.

At the same time, investors continued to assess the implications of the upcoming SpaceX IPO, expected to raise roughly $75 and value the company near $1.75 trillion. Reuters reported that the offering would be the largest IPO in history and that less than 5% of shares are expected to be publicly available at launch. That limited float has become a major point of debate igniting concerns that strong retail demand combined with a small public float could produce unusually sharp price swings.

Read 👉 SpaceX's $75 Billion IPO Has a Problem: Too Few Shares, Too Much Hype

SpaceX recently signed a cloud-computing agreement with Google under which Google will pay approximately $920 million per month for access to computing capacity. The deal follows a previously announced arrangement with Anthropic and underscores how AI infrastructure demand has become a significant component of the SpaceX investment narrative ahead of its market debut.

For investors, Tuesday's trading session reflects a familiar theme that has defined much of 2026: a willingness to look beyond near-term valuation concerns and focus instead on the next phase of AI-driven growth. The next inflection in the Ai trade will come when Oracle reports earnings after the bell on Wednesday.