Wall Street IPO activity has slowed to a trickle as investor demand for new issues weakens amid concerns about elevated valuations, pressuring what had been expected to be a busy quarter.

Delays to Anthropic and OpenAI listings have dented equity capital markets sentiment. The head of equity capital markets at a large U.S. asset manager said: "Nobody cares about any company other than Anthropic right now."

Investment bankers' strong fee income this year has largely reflected SpaceX's June IPO. Bankers said fears of an AI downturn and public opposition to data centers have left the IPO market essentially stalled in recent weeks. Investors are increasingly questioning out-of-touch valuations assigned to AI-linked companies.

BCA Research shows tech companies that listed this year have fallen about 23% on average since their first trading day, adding to concerns that banks may have priced deals too aggressively to win mandates.