The IPO filings by SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic have created a pipeline of US tech offerings worth approximately $3.6 trillion. That wave is going to generate appetite for European tech deals too, according to Ygal el Harrar, global head of equity capital markets for the technology industry at BNP Paribas.
“Liquidity attracts liquidity,” he said in an interview in Paris. “If you’re having big tech companies listing in the US, it’s going to make babies and it’s going to feed the economy.”
The US pipeline
SpaceX filed its public S-1 in May, targeting a Nasdaq listing at roughly $1.8 trillion, which would make it the largest IPO in history. Anthropic filed confidentially at a $965 billion valuation, with OpenAI following days later at $852 billion.
Together, the three companies could add $3.6 trillion in market value to US exchanges by the autumn. SpaceX is expected to price as early as this week, with Anthropic targeting October and OpenAI targeting September.
The European ripple
El Harrar, who previously oversaw venture capital coverage, was appointed to the new tech ECM role earlier this year as BNP Paribas expands its equity capital markets presence in the technology sector. He argued that the scale and excitement of the US mega-IPOs is having ripple effects across the world.
At BNP Paribas’s Private Market Track Conference in Paris this month, US investors signalled growing interest in European tech. “We are looking for more great companies in Europe that fit our models,” said Mike Hayes, managing director at Insight Partners.
European tech is already moving
Several major European tech companies are already heading for public markets. Bending Spoons, the Milan-based company behind Evernote and WeTransfer, has filed for a Nasdaq listing at a reported $20 billion valuation.
Monzo is preparing a London Stock Exchange IPO at £6 to £7 billion, and German quantum computing startup IQM is expected to list on a US exchange around June 2026. Helsing, the European defence AI firm, raised $1.2 billion at an €18 billion valuation and is widely expected to go public within two years.
What’s missing
El Harrar argued that one barrier to more European tech listings is a lack of research coverage for emerging sectors. “For critical but new sectors like quantum, for instance, there is a need for more public awareness and make sure its evolution will be followed and understood,” he said.
The implication is that European tech companies in categories like quantum computing, defence AI, and deep tech struggle to attract public market investors because analysts are not yet covering those sectors at scale.
The flags
The $3.6 trillion figure represents the combined private valuations of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic, not confirmed IPO proceeds. Actual market capitalisations at listing could be significantly higher or lower, and some industry voices have warned that three mega-IPOs could absorb so much capital that they crowd out smaller listings rather than encourage them.
El Harrar’s view that US mega-IPOs will boost European tech appetite is a thesis, not an established pattern. European tech has historically struggled to match US IPO scale, and the continent’s fragmented stock exchanges remain a structural disadvantage. Whether US investor interest translates into actual European deals remains to be seen.
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