US IPO Weekly Winners & Losers

How do you keep track of the latest AI stocks? Easy: Follow the IPO market and they’ll come to you.

This week, tech IPOs got a warm “welcome back” from investors after a six-month hiatus. Both deals pitched AI-related growth.

Reddit (NYSE: RDDT) and Astera Labs (Nasdaq: ALAB) priced above expectations and raised more than $700 million apiece. Both had solid first-day pops. Astera closed out the week with a +94% gain. Reddit’s initial pop faded somewhat, finishing +35% above offer.

Between impressive growth and AI tailwinds, it’s no surprise that chipmaker Astera had no issue drumming up demand for its IPO. It helped that Nvidia’s CEO endorsed the company in its roadshow presentation.

But Reddit didn’t seem like a slam dunk. It’s a good company with a lot of potential, but you can’t normally count on this kind of enthusiasm from a ~20% grower with negative EBITDA.

In other words, this is the green light that pre-IPO tech companies have been waiting for.

The week’s other sizable deal, Peruvian healthcare co. Auna (NYSE: AUNA) priced below the range to raise $360 million in its second US IPO attempt. It finished down -20%.

It looks like we’ll see a few more IPOs in the last week of March. Oncology biotech Boundless Bio (Nasdaq: BOLD) leads the group, planning to raise $100 million.

The IPO Index got a boost midweek to finish up +3.8%, outpacing the S&P 500’s +2.3% gain. Water infrastructure firm Core & Main was the winner, up +14.3%, while payment processor dLocal traded off -14.0%, both on earnings.

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