The biggest IPO in history just happened, and it’s barely a week old. Space X NASDAQ: SPCXpriced at $135, it crossed $200 in its first days of trading and is still going. But according to Luke Lango of InvestorPlace, the most important question isn’t what just happened with SpaceX. That’s what’s next—because two more historic IPOs are on the way before the end of the year, and the template for how to play them out has been written.
Why SpaceX Ran—And What It Shows
SpaceX Today
As of 06/18/2026 04:00 PM Eastern
- 52 week interval
- $149.34
▼
$225.64
- Target Value
- $221.20
The explosive opening was not the only certainty. They were mechanics. Only about 5% of the float was tradable at launch, so even moderate demand pushed the stock to record highs.
That supply-demand imbalance is exactly what Lango expects to play out again when Anthropic and OpenAI go public—both of which have now privately filed S-1s with the SEC.
That doesn’t make SpaceX a straight line from here.
Locks start to expire in August, and engineers who spent a decade building that company and suddenly hold positions worth millions are taking money off the table. That’s not a bearish signal—it’s human nature.
Lango’s view is that volatility is loud, not a reason to exit. His long-term range for SpaceX is $500 to $800 over three to four years.
Best Near Term Supply Chain Trading
The more likely call, in Lango’s view, isn’t SpaceX itself—it’s the private companies that absorb the $75 billion it just raised.
That capital is headed toward orbital data centers, expendable rocket infrastructure, and a fully integrated semiconductor manufacturing facility being built in Texas. The trade-off for AI infrastructure is straightforward. Microsoft Corporation NASDAQ: MSFT and the Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOGL were decent AI games—but the biggest winners were check-cashing companies.
Optical names like Coherent Corp. NYSE: COHR and Corning NYSE: GLW. Power plays like GE Vernova NYSE: GEV. Construction names like Caterpillar NYSE: CAT. Lango sees a similar dynamic setup now for space AI infrastructure.
Pre-IPO Vehicles and the Proxy Trade Playbook
For investors who want exposure to Anthropic and OpenAI before they go public, the publicly listed capital vehicle category offers one route: Funds that hold pre-IPO stakes in private companies and trade on an exchange like any other stock.
The category is new, but the SpaceX IPO just gave you a real-world stress test.
Two of them ran hard before the first SpaceX. Tema Space Innovators ETF NYSEARCA: NASA it went from $25 to about $45 before the IPO. Destiny Tech100 NYSE: DXYZ had an even bigger move, then repatriated most of those profits when SpaceX was sold outright. The logic is simple: when the real thing is available, investors stop buying the proxy.
That return is not a commercial error. It’s the nature of it. The window is the time between now and the IPO date, and the exit time is just as important as the entry.
Lango expects similar vehicles with Anthropic and OpenAI exposure to follow the same trajectory, potentially doubling or more in that exposure before re-tracking. For savvy investors, that’s a defined setup with a clear clock, not a long-term hold.
Where Money Flows Anthropic and OpenAI
With SpaceX, the indirect games were the names associated with space—Rocket Lab USA NASDAQ: RKLBPlanet Labs PBC NYSE: PLAST SpaceMobile NASDAQ: ASTSBlackSky Technology NYSE: BKSYand Redwire Corporation NYSE: RDW-that went into IPO and then backed out when the real thing hit.
The Anthropic and OpenAI versions of that trade include different terms with different dynamics.
Software is a pressure point. iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF Bats: IGV has already retreated from its highs, and Lango sees the Anthropic IPO as a bad move for names like Salesforce. NYSE: CRMAdobe NASDAQ: ADBEand Intuit NASDAQ: THING as frontier AI models draw on much of what those platforms do.
The long side of circulation is a lot of technology. Amazon.com NASDAQ: AMZN is a major investor in Anthropic. Microsoft is deeply tied to OpenAI. The company NVIDIA NASDAQ: NVDA has exposure to both. Lango expects some selling pressure on those names in IPOs—and positions any weakness as a buying opportunity.
The Contrarian Case for OpenAI
Consistency has shifted to Anthropic as the driving force. Lango’s most controversial call is that OpenAI may be a better near-term setup. It has a capable new flagship model, and the political climate may be in its favor: there are reported talks about the White House taking a stake in frontier AI companies, and Lango’s reading is that those talks are actually about OpenAI.
If that happens before the IPO, the proxy trading OpenAI can move fast and hard.
The liquidity of both deals comes mainly from the big tech. Investors bought Microsoft for its OpenAI offering and Amazon for its Anthropic stake. When direct exposure is available, the rationale for holding those proxies fades—and that turn is where most of the opportunities reside.
Those same dynamics shape the long-term outlook for T-Mobile US NASDAQ: TMUSVerizon Communications NYSE: VZand AT&T NYSE: T as Starlink continues to build. The disruption there won’t be resolved in one IPO cycle—but it’s worth tracking as SpaceX releases its capital.
SpaceX didn’t just make history. Draw a map. Two more historic debuts are coming before the end of the year, and investors who read the template correctly could be ahead of both.
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