Paul R. La Monica

Forget about bulls and bears. Unicorns are once again parading on Wall Street.

The blockbuster stock market debut of stablecoin company Circle on Thursday, coupled with the recent surge in the shares of CoreWeave, an artificial-intelligence company, suggests that investor appetite for the initial public offerings of riskier emerging-growth companies is once again alive and well.

Next up to test the market's demand for IPOs? Fintech Chime and space and defense company Voyager Technologies. Both are on tap to go public the week of June 9.

Chime is currently set to sell 32 million shares at a price range of $24 to $26 each, which would raise $800 million at the midpoint, and value the company at more than $10 billion. Voyager is planning to sell 11 million shares at a range of $26 to $29 each. At the middle of that range, Voyager would raise more than $300 million from the stock sale, and have a market capitalization of $1.6 billion.

Whether or not those two stocks take off like Circle -- whose shares soared nearly 170% Thursday and was up another 45% Friday -- remains to be seen. But one analyst suggested that investors may not want to sleep on new offerings, especially after CoreWeave, a leader in cloud AI computing, has skyrocketed 250% following a less than stellar debut.

CoreWeave went public in late March, around the time of peak worries about tariffs and fears that inflation could pick up again. The stock finished its first day flat, after reducing the number of shares it originally planned to sell and lowering its offering price from its initial range. But CoreWeave stock, which priced at $40, is now trading at about $140.

"There may be a sense of FOMO for those who missed out on CoreWeave," said Samuel Kerr, head of equity capital markets at Mergermarket. He's referring to acting out of "fear of missing out." "[CoreWeave stock] underperformed at first but it has been off to the races since then. There is a desire to not miss out on the next big IPO."

Kerr told Barron's that the aftermarket performance for both CoreWeave and Circle stock might finally convince some other privately held companies that have been sitting on the sidelines to file for IPOs as well.

"The IPO window is opening," Kerr said. "The market has bounced back far faster than we thought after Liberation Day. It's extraordinary to see."

There is one thing that could possibly slow down the pace of IPOs in the next few months, though: The calendar. Many companies are reluctant to go public in the sleepy summer months. Still, Kerr expects more companies to file the necessary paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission that could put them on track to IPO in the fall.

But that may depend on what happens next in Washington regarding trade policy.

BeiChen Lin, senior investment strategist with Russell Investments, said that IPO, as well as merger activity, should pick up later this year if the Federal Reserve starts cutting interest rates again and if the Trump administration begins to focus more on deregulatory efforts. But renewed fears about tariffs though could slam the IPO window shut.

"There are ongoing questions about trade policy uncertainty that could make it harder for some companies to make business decisions," Lin said. "That could outweigh benefits from deregulation."

Strong debuts from Chime and Voyager may allay some of those fears. But while there are promising signs for unicorns, there may not be a huge wave of IPOs hitting Wall Street until trade war concerns become a distant memory.

Write to Paul R. La Monica at paul.lamonica@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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June 06, 2025 13:36 ET (17:36 GMT)

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