April 1 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX has moved closer to going public with its confidential filing, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters ‌on Wednesday, as the billionaire's rocket-and-satellite company looks to beat OpenAI and ‌Anthropic to the new listings market.

Wall Street is betting that 2026 could be a breakout year for ​the U.S. IPO market, underpinned by a strong pipeline of high-profile private companies and pent-up demand for new listings.

Goldman Sachs earlier this year predicted that proceeds from U.S. IPOs could vault to a record $160 billion in 2026, should the marquee names go public this year.

But ‌risks linger, as geopolitical uncertainty ⁠and ongoing structural disruptions have become a persistent feature in the landscape, stoking higher volatility across equities.

Here is an overview of some ⁠of the mega IPOs expected in 2026:

SPACEX

Elon Musk's SpaceX has confidentially filed for its hotly anticipated U.S. initial public offering, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on ​Wednesday, laying ​the groundwork for what could be the ​biggest stock market flotation ever.

In February, ‌SpaceX acquired Musk's artificial-intelligence startup xAI in a record-setting deal, unifying the billionaire's AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok chatbot.

If SpaceX raises more than $25.6 billion, it would be the world's largest IPO, eclipsing oil major Saudi Aramco's listing in 2019.

OPENAI

OpenAI was laying the groundwork for an IPO ‌that could value it at up to $1 trillion, ​with the ChatGPT maker considering filing with securities ​regulators as soon as the second ​half of 2026, Reuters reported last year.

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer had ‌said at the time an IPO ​was not in the ​company's near-term plans.

ANTHROPIC

Claude-maker Anthropic hired law firm Wilson Sonsini to prepare for an IPO that could take place as early as 2026, the Financial Times reported ​in December.

An Anthropic spokesperson ‌told Reuters at the time the company had not decided when or ​whether it will go public.

(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing ​by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Shinjini Ganguli)