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Odd Lots: A16Z’s George on Huge Private Market Growth (Podcast)

Joe Weisenthal, Tracy Alloway
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2 min read
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⚡ Quantum Brief
Andreessen Horowitz’s David George highlights how private markets now rival public ones in liquidity, allowing companies like Databricks and Stripe to delay IPOs indefinitely. Deeper capital pools reduce reliance on public listings. Major AI firms like Anthropic and OpenAI may still pursue IPOs in 2026, but the trend leans toward staying private longer. George notes this shift reflects reduced urgency for public funding. The AI disruption trade remains a key focus, with private giants leveraging their scale before considering public exposure. George suggests timing hinges on market conditions and strategic needs. Public markets no longer offer the same advantages as private funding, which now provides sufficient capital and flexibility. This structural change reshapes corporate growth strategies. George implies that only regulatory demands or extreme scale might force private giants to go public, signaling a lasting shift in capital market dynamics.
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Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the worldAmericas+1 212 318 2000EMEA+44 20 7330 7500Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the worldAmericas+1 212 318 2000EMEA+44 20 7330 7500Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000This year could be a big one for IPOs. From Anthropic to SpaceX to OpenAI, we could see some gigantic companies hit the public market. But of course, the big story is that big, thriving companies feel less and less pressure to go public. In a different era, private giants like Databricks and Stripe might've IPO'd a long time ago. So what's changed? Why are companies comfortable staying private for so long? On this episode, we speak with David George, a general partner at Andreesen Horowitz, who leads the firm's growth investing team. He discusses how private markets have grown deeper and more liquid, which greatly reduces the need for companies to have public stock at all. We also talk about how he's thinking about the AI disruption trade, and when it makes sense for these private giants to bite the bullet and expose their stock to public investors.Feb 20, 2026

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