SpaceX's New Record, Kardigan's Debut, and Uzbekistan's Plans: The Key Takeaways on IPOs Ahead of June 21

SpaceX increased the amount of capital raised in its IPO to $85.7 billion, and the frenzy surrounding the offering triggered multibillion-dollar capital flows between ETFs. Biotech startup Kardigan made a successful stock market debut. Meanwhile, the Uzbek “unicorn” Uzum is preparing for a new funding round ahead of a potential IPO. Check out our roundup of the week’s top events in the initial public offering market.

— Uzum, an Uzbek fintech holding company whose investors include Chinese giant Tencent, plans to hold a new round of financing by the end of the year to support a large-scale expansion ahead of a potential IPO. According to Uzum CEO Jasur Jumayev, the offering could take place within two to three years. In March, the company was valued at $2.3 billion. Uzum, which offers a variety of services—from digital banking to food delivery—generates about $200 million in annual revenue and aims to become Uzbekistan’s largest digital bank.

— OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, which plans to go public in 2026, spent about $34 billion last year on revenue of $13 billion, the Financial Times has learned. The company’s net loss rose to about $39 billion, though a significant portion of that amount is attributable to non-cash accounting write-downs resulting from the revaluation of investor rights. Excluding these effects, the loss amounted to about $8 billion. According to the FT, OpenAI sharply increased its research and development spending as it continued to actively invest in the race for leadership in the artificial intelligence market.

— Kalshi, an American prediction market operator, is considering an IPO and is in informal talks with investment banks amid rapid business growth, The Information has learned. The company’s annual revenue exceeded $2 billion, tripling since November 2025, while trading volume for the first two weeks of June reached $10 billion, compared with $435 million a year earlier. In May, Kalshi raised $1 billion in funding at a $22 billion valuation, the publication notes. It is currently working to attract institutional investors and develop new products, including perpetual cryptocurrency futures, whose trading volume exceeded $8.5 billion in less than two weeks after launch.

— The National Investment Fund of Uzbekistan (UzNIF) has begun preparations for the initial public offering (IPO) of the country’s largest airline, Uzbekistan Airways. The fund intends to select placement advisors for the airline and a number of other assets in the near future. According to UzNIF’s prospectus, Uzbektelecom and Uzbekhydroenergo may also go public within the next two years. The fund itself, managed by Franklin Templeton, listed on the London Stock Exchange in May, becoming the first Uzbek issuer on the international stock market.

— India’s largest stock exchange, the National Stock Exchange (NSE), has filed for an IPO that could be one of the largest in the country this year, according to CNBC. The offering will take the form of a secondary offering, with sellers including the State Bank of India, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Temasek. Analysts note that the IPOs of the NSE and telecom operator Reliance Jio could collectively raise more than $6.3 billion and account for about one-third of the funds raised in the Indian IPO market over the entire past year.

— Reformation, a popular women’s clothing brand favored by celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Meghan Markle, and Hailey Bieber, is preparing to go public as early as this summer, sources told The Wall Street Journal. According to the sources, preliminary plans call for the retailer to file a confidential IPO application as early as next week and go public in July. Reformation is currently owned by the private equity firm Permira, which acquired a controlling stake in the company in 2019.

— The underwriters of SpaceX’s IPO exercised their over-allotment option, increasing the amount of funds raised by the company from $75 billion to $85.7 billion. During its first week as a public company (shortened due to U.S. holidays), SpaceX’s market capitalization rose to $2.4 trillion. Its shares have been sold off over the past two trading days but are still trading 37% higher than at the time of the IPO. SpaceX is also preparing its first investment-grade bond offering of at least $20 billion to refinance the bridge loan it secured prior to the IPO.

— Shares of biotechnology company Kardigan rose nearly 38% on their first day of trading following a $400 million IPO, the size of which was increased due to strong investor demand. In total, the developer of drugs for treating cardiovascular diseases sold 25 million shares at $16 per share, which corresponds to the upper end of the previously announced price range ($14–16). Kardigan had initially intended to sell 23.3 million shares. The company’s successful IPO is yet another sign of renewed investor interest in biotech companies with advanced clinical programs, notes Reuters: Kardigan is developing three drugs in late-stage trials and expects to publish key data on them in the first half of next year.

— SpaceX’s IPO triggered multibillion-dollar inflows and outflows from a number of ETFs, which, according to Bloomberg analysts, indicates that investors are employing an “IPO arbitrage” strategy. The essence of the strategy is to buy shares in funds that are likely to receive shares in the offering, followed by a rapid withdrawal of funds once trading begins. The most notable activity was observed in Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation Fund, which received a record inflow of $4.6 billion ahead of the IPO and then faced an outflow of $6.2 billion. Some fund managers were forced to restrict trading in their funds, fearing dilution of long-term investors’ stakes.

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