Recently, Wall Street's initial public offering market has cooled noticeably, as weak investor demand for new shares and concerns about lofty valuations have chilled what was expected to be a busy listing season. Over the past few weeks, multiple companies have paused or postponed their plans to go public in the United States.

Gas station giant EG Group, nuclear power group Holtec, smart ring startup Oura, and data center company SB Energy all recently shelved their U.S. listing plans. Bamboo Insurance postponed its IPO last month. The delay of two highly anticipated Wall Street listings has also weighed on sentiment in the U.S. equity capital markets. Investors in Anthropic hope it will list at a valuation of more than $2 trillion, with a debut expected in mid-November after the U.S. midterm elections, later than previously anticipated. Its rival OpenAI has pushed its blockbuster IPO to next year. A head of equity capital markets at a large U.S. asset manager said: "Nobody cares about anything except Anthropic right now. Investors just aren't interested in these other companies."

Investment bankers have had a busy year, largely thanks to SpaceX's record-breaking $86 billion listing in June and a wave of bond issuance by Silicon Valley tech groups to fund massive data center spending. But the IPO market has dried up in recent weeks as concerns about an AI industry downturn and public opposition to data centers have surfaced. The banker added that many smaller IPOs have been postponed because investors are increasingly skeptical of the "out-of-step" valuations of companies tied to the AI investment boom. SoftBank-backed SB Energy was targeting a valuation of about $50 billion without a single facility in operation. Data from BCA Research shows that tech listings this year have fallen about 23% on average since their first day of trading, deepening concerns that banks are pricing deals too high to win mandates. Some of the year's biggest IPOs, including SpaceX's listing, gave back gains in the weeks after a strong first-day pop. An investor at a British boutique bank said: "The market is getting smarter about these deals. The stock pops for a day, then slowly bleeds. (IPOs) get heavily oversubscribed by fast money, hyping the first-day gain."

Meanwhile, early backers of companies like SpaceX are sitting on huge paper gains. A former equity capital markets banker said: "New investors know they're getting the short end of the stick, all the gains go to private holders." Volatile oil prices and a global government debt sell-off have deepened market caution and may also derail two IPOs in the U.S. and European hospitality sectors. Ennismore, a boutique hotel joint venture backed by France's Accor, has been discussing plans to list in New York as soon as this year. People familiar with the matter said the shift in sentiment could extend that timeline, but stressed that no final decision has been made. Accor and Ennismore declined to comment. Spain's Hotel Investment Partners, acquired by Blackstone in 2017, has been discussing a listing in Spain this year at a valuation that could exceed 6 billion euros. People familiar with the matter said market uncertainty means those plans could also change. Blackstone and HIP declined to comment.

Gas station giant EG Group, which operates under the Cumberland Farms brand, had hoped to list in New York this autumn, raising about $1 billion at a valuation of $9 billion. The plan was pushed back to 2027 this week, while the company has already received early interest from bidders including infrastructure investor Stonepeak. A person close to the company also blamed energy price volatility caused by the war with Iran. Other companies that changed plans citing market turmoil may have less solid grounds. Despite sharp swings in bond and commodity prices, Wall Street's S&P 500 remains near record highs, and the Vix index of short-term U.S. stock volatility is subdued. Capital markets bankers typically push companies to list when the Vix is low.