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This is the point where 'private' becomes 'public'. It gives the market its first real look under the hood of companies like OpenAI, SpaceX and a new wave of ASX hopefuls.
An initial public offering (IPO) is when a private company offers its shares to the public for the first time. Before an IPO, shares are usually held only by founders, early employees and private investors but going public opens those shares to a broader market.
For traders, IPOs may be the first opportunity to gain direct exposure to a company's stock. They can create a unique environment of elevated volatility and heightened interest, but they also carry higher risk because price history is limited and sentiment can shift quickly.
| Company | Estimated valuation | Exchange | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Anthropic Artificial intelligence | ~US$350 billion | Nasdaq | Rumoured |
Databricks AI and data | ~US$134 billion | Nasdaq | Expected |
Firmus Technologies AI infrastructure | ~A$6 billion | ASX | Expected |
Greencross Pet care & veterinary | ~A$4 billion plus | ASX | Rumoured |
OpenAI Artificial intelligence | ~US$850 billion | Nasdaq | Expected |
Rokt E-commerce adtech | ~US$7.9 billion | Nasdaq and ASX CDI | Expected |
SpaceX Aerospace and AI | ~US$1.5 trillion | Nasdaq | Expected |
Stripe Fintech | ~US$140 billion | NYSE/Nasdaq | Rumoured |
How a listing works
By listing day, institutional investors have usually already assessed the company. Understanding the six-stage process helps traders see what may already be reflected in the price before the stock opens to the broader market.
The company selects an underwriter to assess its finances, corporate structure and market positioning.
Underwriters conduct due diligence and lodge disclosure documents with the relevant regulator.
Executives pitch to institutional investors and analysts. This is where demand is built and price expectations are set, before retail traders ever see the stock.
Based on roadshow feedback, underwriters set the final share price and decide how many shares will be issued.
Shares begin trading on the chosen exchange. For most traders, this is the first chance to trade the stock.
Now public, the company must publish financial results regularly and meet the governance standards of its exchange.
Trading IPOs with CFDs
IPO listing day is often defined by large sentiment swings and thin price history. That combination can make traditional buy-and-hold exposure harder to manage. CFDs let traders take a view on either side of the move, size positions precisely and act quickly as the story develops.
Trade the initial surge or the post-hype correction. CFDs let you take a position in either direction from listing day onward.
IPO volatility tends to compress into the first days and weeks. CFDs are well suited to these shorter, event-driven windows
Stop loss and limit orders can help define your risk beforeentry, which matters when price discovery is still unfolding.
Access share CFDs across US and Australian markets, including names like Rokt and Firmus Technologies, from one account.
Access US and Australian share CFDs with fast execution, competitive pricing, and built-in risk management tools.
April's US earnings season is landing in a market that wants more than a good story. JPMorgan has already set a high bar with a strong result, and attention is now shifting to the engine room of the S&P 500: AI infrastructure where three companies are at the centre of that story.
Microsoft, Alphabet and NVIDIA are not just participants in the AI cycle, they are building the physical and software architecture that other companies depend on: the chips, the cloud regions, the models and the tools. If this spending is going to deliver returns, the first signs may start to show in their quarterly results over the next few weeks.
Each company represents a different test.
In 2026, the question is no longer whether AI investment is happening, the capital commitments are substantial and already publicly stated. The question is whether that spending is generating returns quickly enough to justify the scale of those bets.
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April’s US earnings season is arriving in a market that is asking harder questions. It is no longer enough for companies to tell a good story. Traders want to see whether the physical side of the next cycle is turning into real revenue, steadier margins and clearer guidance.
That is why Tesla, NextEra Energy and Exxon Mobil matter this month. Each sits close to a theme the market is trying to price right now: autonomy, electricity demand and oil supply risk. They are very different businesses, but together they offer a useful read on where attention may be shifting when the market wants something more tangible.
In 2026, those signals are colliding with a high-friction backdrop:
The broader theme here is simple. AI still matters. Growth still matters. But this earnings season may also test the companies supplying the power, infrastructure and fuel behind that story.
For beginner to intermediate traders, this matters because these stocks can move for very different reasons. Tesla can trade on margins and product narrative. NextEra can trade on power demand and capital spending plans. Exxon can move with crude, refining margins and buyback confidence. Looking at them together gives traders a clearer way to think about how the market is pricing the real economy side of the 2026 story.
So here is the thing: April’s US earnings season is arriving in a market that still feels anything but normal. As GO Markets explains in The global US earnings playbook: The essential guide for traders, this reporting period is landing after a real shift in what markets care about. It is no longer just about chasing growth at any cost. It is about what the numbers are saying beneath the surface.
And in 2026, those signals are colliding with a high-friction backdrop:
Yes, AI is still the market’s main story but it's still the flashy engine getting most of the attention. But underneath that, there is a quieter move towards companies that look built to hold up better when conditions get harder.
When rates are uncertain and energy markets are under pressure, names like JPMorgan Chase and the major defence contractors start to carry more weight. They are not replacing the AI narrative, rather, they are becoming part of the way traders read risk appetite, earnings durability and, ultimately, where the market is looking for something more solid to hold on to.
If you have been watching markets over the past year, you will have noticed that the "growth at any cost" era has effectively hit a wall. The April 2026 earnings cycle arrives at a moment when the market's focus has undergone a structural reorientation. It is not just about profit and loss statements anymore. It is about the signals sitting behind them.
With interest rate uncertainty lingering and geopolitical shocks pushing oil above US$100, the playbook has shifted from AI hype toward institutional resilience and the industrialisation of compute. For traders in Australia, Asia and Latin America, these results may act as a mood ring for global risk appetite and the emerging security supercycle.
A BMO result hits before the US cash market opens, so price discovery happens in pre-market trading where liquidity is thinner and moves can be exaggerated. An AMC result hits after close, meaning the reaction is compressed into a short pre-market window the following morning. Understanding which window your company reports in is as important as understanding what it reports.
It's worth asking: Is the obvious trade already priced for perfection?
2026 is shaping up as a year of proof. Companies that spent heavily on AI over the past two years are now being asked to show the return. The market is no longer rewarding the announcement of AI investment. It is rewarding the evidence of AI-driven revenue outcomes.
A better framing question for each result is this: are you reacting to a headline, or are you assessing the company's role in the physical AI supply chain or as a potential volatility hedge? Those are very different analytical tasks, and they tend to produce very different positioning decisions.
Here is the situation as April begins. A war is affecting one of the world's most important oil chokepoints. Brent crude is trading above US$100. And the Federal Reserve (Fed), which spent much of 2025 engineering a soft landing, is now facing an inflation threat driven less by wages, services or the domestic economy, and more by energy. It is watching an oil shock.
The Fed funds rate sits at 3.50% to 3.75%. The next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting is on 28 and 29 April and the key question for markets is not whether the Fed will cut, it is whether the Fed can cut, or whether the energy shock may have shut that door for much of 2026.
A heavy run of major data releases lands in April. The March consumer price index (CPI), non-farm payrolls (NFP) and the advance estimate of Q1 gross domestic product (GDP) are the three that matter most. But the FOMC statement on 29 April may be the release that sets the tone for the rest of the year.
Think about what the US economy looked like coming into this year: AI-driven capital expenditure (capex) was a major part of the growth narrative, corporate investment intentions looked firm and the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act was already in the mix. On paper, the growth story looked solid.
Then the Strait of Hormuz situation changed the calculus. Not because the US is a net energy importer, it is not, and that structural insulation matters. But what is good for US energy producers can still squeeze margins elsewhere and weigh on global demand. The 30 April advance Q1 gross domestic product (GDP) estimate is now likely to be read through two lenses: how strong was the economy before the shock, and what it may signal about the quarters ahead.
February's jobs report was, depending on how you read it, either a blip or a warning sign. Non-farm payrolls (NFP) fell by 92,000, unemployment edged up to 4.4% and the official line was that weather played a role. That may be true but here is what also happened. The labour market suddenly looked a little less convincing as the main argument for keeping rates elevated.
The 3 April employment report for March is now genuinely consequential. A bounce back to positive payroll growth would probably steady nerves and a second consecutive soft print, particularly against a backdrop of higher energy prices, would start to build a very uncomfortable narrative for the Fed. It would be looking at slower jobs growth and an inflation threat at the same time. That is not a comfortable place to be.
Here is the uncomfortable truth about where inflation sits right now. Core personal consumption expenditures (PCE), the Fed's preferred gauge, was already running at 3.1% year on year in January, before any oil shock had fed through. The Fed had not fully solved its inflation problem, rather, it had slowed it down. That is a different thing.
And now, on top of a not-quite-solved inflation problem, oil prices have moved sharply higher. Energy prices can feed into the consumer price index (CPI) relatively quickly, through petrol, transport and logistics costs that can eventually show up in the price of nearly everything. The 10 April CPI print for March is probably the most important single data release of the month, it is the one that may tell us whether the energy shock is already showing up in the numbers the Fed watches.
April is also the start of US earnings season, and this quarter's results carry an unusual amount of weight. Investors have been pouring capital into AI infrastructure on the basis that returns are coming. The question is when. With geopolitical volatility driving a rotation away from growth-oriented technology and towards energy and defence, JPMorgan Chase's 14 April earnings will be read as much for what management says about the macro environment as for the numbers themselves.
Then there is the FOMC meeting on 28 and 29 April. After the early-April run of data, including NFP, CPI and producer price index (PPI), the Fed will have more than enough information to update its language. Whether it signals that rate cuts could remain on hold through 2026, or whether it leaves the door slightly ajar, may be the most consequential communication of the quarter.
Geopolitical volatility has already pushed investors to reassess growth-heavy positioning. The estimated US$650 billion AI infrastructure buildout is also coming under heavier scrutiny on return on investment. If earnings season disappoints on that front, and if the FOMC signals a prolonged hold, the combination could test risk appetite heading into May.
Asia dominates the global semiconductor supply. Five companies, spanning Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, sit at the critical juncture of the AI buildout, controlling everything from fabrication to the equipment that makes chips possible.
TSMC is the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, producing advanced semiconductors for Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm. As a pure-play foundry, it leads in 5-nanometer (5nm) and 3- nanometer (3nm) chip production, with smaller nodes in development.
The company posted $90 billion in revenue for 2024 with a 59% gross margin and 36% return on equity.
Shares delivered a total return of 55% in 2025, with analysts forecasting a further ~30% revenue increase in 2026, underpinned by its $100 billion US expansion programme.
The key risk for the company is its geopolitical exposure, with Taiwan Strait tensions remaining the sector's most-watched tail risk.
Samsung is one of the few companies globally that both designs and fabricates chips at scale. It competes across DRAM, NAND flash, and logic chip segments, and remains a core supplier to global tech giants.
Samsung's wide scope is a strength, but also a complexity. Its memory division faces margin pressure from inventory cycles, while its foundry business continues to lag TSMC in leading-edge yields.
The AI-driven memory boom may provide a tailwind, though execution in HBM production has been slower than local rival SK Hynix.
Tokyo-based Advantest makes testing equipment used to verify chips meet performance and quality standards.
It supplies to Samsung, Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments, allowing it to benefit from chip industry growth broadly, regardless of which foundry wins market share.
Advantest shares doubled in 2025 (+102%), and it raised its sales forecast by 21.8% and earnings forecast by 70.6% for the year ending March 2026.
Tokyo Electron is among the world's largest suppliers of semiconductor production equipment, specialising in deposition, etching, and cleaning tools.
Every major chipmaker, including TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix, depends on TEL's systems to scale production.
As chipmakers invest billions to expand capacity, TEL's order book grows. The risk lies in potential US export restrictions on advanced equipment sales to China, which remains one of the primary revenue segments for the company.
SK Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chip maker and has emerged as arguably the clearest AI-era beneficiary in the memory space.
It is Nvidia's primary supplier of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips, the specialised memory used in AI accelerators like the H100 and B200.
HBM demand has driven a dramatic re-rating of SK Hynix's revenue profile and market standing. With AI infrastructure spending showing little sign of slowing heading into 2026, the company's HBM franchise could remain a key differentiator.
However, capacity constraints and the risk of Samsung and Micron closing the HBM gap are the primary concerns to watch.
TSMC, SK Hynix, Samsung, Advantest, and Tokyo Electron collectively control the chokepoints of the AI buildout.
The expected increase in AI infrastructure may support demand, but investors should weigh the risks carefully.
Geopolitical exposure, US export restrictions, and the pace of HBM competition could all move the needle.
References to companies, IPO candidates, valuations, exchanges, sectors and markets are illustrative only, based on publicly available information at the time of publication, and may change without notice. A proposed listing may be delayed, amended or cancelled, and inclusion on this page does not imply that a company will list, or that any share or CFD will be available to trade through GO Markets.