IPOs are back — and so is the hype. SpaceX (SPCX) launched its record-breaking initial public offering in June, and artificial-intelligence heavyweights Anthropic and OpenAI have also filed to go public, although there's talk that the latter, the developer of ChatGPT, may delay its upcoming IPO until 2027.
With Wall Street bringing its brightest, shiniest objects to market, investors thinking about owning a piece of these freshly minted public companies can't buy blindly. It's due diligence time. Homework time. And that means it's time to study the IPO prospectus. This legal document, known as the S-1, is akin to a company confessional, as it lays out the investment thesis, spills financial secrets and flags every risk imaginable.
