The Initial Public Offering (IPO) market, which had been energized by the artificial intelligence (AI) investment boom, is contracting sharply. Driven by rising interest rates, heightened stock market volatility, and growing concerns over AI data center investments, major AI infrastructure companies are consecutively delaying or canceling their listing schedules.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 13th (local time), technology companies that had been pushing for fourth-quarter listings are reevaluating their IPO schedules due to recent market uncertainties. Plans are experiencing setbacks particularly among AI data center firms.

Australian data center company FirmusGrid recently canceled its IPO, through which it aimed to raise approximately $5 billion. If successful, it would have been Australia's largest IPO in 30 years. The company, which maintains close ties with Nvidia and has received investments from Blackstone and Coatue, withdrew its listing due to market volatility. It now plans to secure funding in the private market before pursuing a U.S. stock market listing next year.

AirTrunk, an Australian data center firm preparing for a listing on the Singapore Exchange, also postponed its IPO to the first half of next year, citing market volatility and rising interest rates.

Large-scale IPO plans by OpenAI and Anthropic are likewise feeling the impact of market uncertainties. Anthropic has delayed its listing schedule by a few weeks and is set to host an Investor Day event at its San Francisco headquarters on the 14th. Some investors are reportedly delaying investments in other new public offerings to participate in Anthropic's IPO scheduled for later this year.

SoftBank's energy subsidiary, SB Energy, also postponed its IPO schedule due to investor pushback over company valuation and unfavorable market conditions. While SB Energy is advancing a 10-gigawatt (GW) data center project in Ohio, USA, for OpenAI, it currently has no data centers in actual operation.

As uncertainties grow surrounding the permitting and completion schedules of projects pursued by developers, investors are valuing unbuilt projects lower than before.

Amid intensifying competition from Chinese companies, stock prices of memory semiconductor firms like Samsung Electronics and Micron have plummeted, while AI cloud companies CoreWeave and Nebius have also seen weak stock performance, expanding volatility across AI-related stocks overall.

Nonetheless, some companies are proceeding with their listings. British cloud firm Enscale is targeting an IPO within weeks, while Lambda, a U.S. cloud company backed by Nvidia and Blackstone, is planning a listing next year. Lambda recently initiated procedures to raise $4 billion in its final pre-IPO funding round.

[Copyright (c) Global Economic Times. All Rights Reserved.]