PayPay listing in the U.S. and a new victim of the "soft-apocalypse": the main thing about the IPO by February 15

The leader of the Japanese market of QR-payments PayPay may in March hold in New York IPO for $2 billion, postponed due to the shutdown. The Clear Street broker canceled the listing at the last minute amid the "soft-apocalypse". The number of initial public offerings in the U.S. in 2026 will double and the amount of funds raised will quadruple, predicted Goldman Sachs. The main events on the IPO market for the week are in our selection.

- Japanese payment service PayPay, which is owned by SoftBank, plans to hold an IPO on the U.S. exchange Nasdaq in March, Nikkei Asia reported citing sources. The company's market capitalization may exceed 3 trillion yen ($19.6 billion). SoftBank intends to sell about 10% of shares - such a volume of free float is a threshold condition for inclusion of issuers in the Nasdaq 100 index, Nikkei notes. PayPay was created in 2018, reached operating profit five years later and now has about 70% of the Japanese QR payments market. Limited growth potential at home has the company looking overseas for opportunities: the service launched in South Korea in 2025 and this week announced a partnership with Visa to enter the US market. PayPay originally planned an IPO in December 2025, but the listing was delayed due to the US government shutdown.

- Singapore-based data center operator DayOne, which is backed by China's GDS Holdings, has chosen the organizing banks for its IPO in the United States. According to Bloomberg's sources, the company expects to raise about $5 billion during the offering. The target valuation of the business may be up to $20 billion, and the listing itself is likely to take place this year. DayOne owns a network of data centers located in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and Finland. Its investors also include major funds Boyu Capital, Hillhouse, SoftBank Vision Fund and Citadel founder Ken Griffin.

- National railway operator Kazakhstan Temir Joly (KTZ) is considering an IPO in May 2026, according to Bloomberg sources. According to them, the state-owned company plans to raise about $1 billion to finance a large-scale program of business expansion: it is discussed the placement of up to 25% of shares in a dual listing on the local and one of the foreign exchanges. Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Societe Generale are preparing for the IPO, Bloomberg wrote in November 2025. According to its sources, the value of the railroad monopoly is estimated at $10 billion or more.

- Quotes of the US solar energy solutions provider SOLV Energy jumped 23% in the debut trading after the IPO in New York. At closing, the securities were worth $30.67 at a listing price of $25. The company listed $513 million worth of shares on Nasdaq at the top end of its stated price range. According to Bloomberg, demand exceeded supply more than ten times during the bookbuild. SOLV Energy specializes in the design, construction and maintenance of solar farms and energy storage systems. Demand for these services is growing due to the construction of data centers for artificial intelligence. In its IPO prospectus, the company called AI energy supply the major "market opportunity" of the decade.

- Shares of Brazilian fintech AGI fell 10% on the first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange after raising $240 million in an abbreviated IPO. On the eve of the listing, the digital bank sharply reduced both the number of shares offered and the price range. AGI attempted an IPO back in 2018 in Brazil, but ran into a lack of demand in an election year. The window of opportunity for Brazilian companies in the US opened in 2026 after a long hiatus. However, weakness in the shares of another recent debutant, digital bank PicPay, which have fallen 20% in price since listing in January, threatens to stall the process in the near term, Reuters notes.

- New York-based broker Clear Street has canceled its IPO on Nasdaq just hours after dramatically revising its offering parameters. Initially, the company planned to raise up to $1.1 billion at a business valuation of about $12 billion. However, on February 12, a day before the planned start of trading Clear Street cut the volume of the offering almost threefold - to $364 million, and then postponed the listing indefinitely "due to market conditions". The decision was made amid a sharp drop in the U.S. stock market, caused by fears that artificial intelligence will destroy traditional business models, notes the Financial Times. This week, securities of management companies, insurance brokers and real estate developers fell under the sell-off.

- Dutch telecom operator Odido, the country's largest, has postponed its IPO in Amsterdam due to subdued investor reaction and market volatility, Reuters reported, citing sources. The company, which is owned by funds Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus, had planned to raise €1 billion back in late January. The process has now been put on pause. According to Reuters sources, investors favored shares of rival KPN, considering them a more profitable investment. Additional factors were the sell-off in the tech sector and the nervous reaction of markets to US President Donald Trump's desire to establish control over Greenland.

- Chatbot developer Claude Anthropic has more than doubled its value ahead of its expected IPO. This week, the startup reported that it was valued at $380 billion in its latest funding round. In the fall of 2025, Anthropic raised funds from private investors based on a business valuation of $183 billion. According to the Financial Times, Anthropic's listing could take place as early as 2026: investors expect the company to go public before its main competitor, OpenAI.

- Goldman Sachs analysts predicted a sharp growth of the IPO market in the U.S. in 2026. According to their estimates, the number of placements compared to 2025 will double and reach 120, and the amount of funds raised may quadruple. The base forecast assumes record fees of $160 billion, although the range varies from $80 billion to $200 billion. In Goldman Sachs expects that the leaders in the number of applications will be companies from the software and health care, and in terms of volume - the tech sector and AI. However, the bank warned about the risks of valuing startups coming to the exchange after the sell-off of software vendors' shares in early February: software developers account for about a quarter of the entire listing queue.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor