There are few things a stock enthusiast loves more than a high-profile public offering. Investors get a shiny new toy to test-drive, and the market gets a fresh read on sentiment.
Good or bad, these offerings are usually exciting — and volatile.
But regardless of what happens, interest inevitably wanes over time. The post-offering honeymoon period ends. New, shinier toys pop onto the radar.
It's been no different within the AI-dominated landscape of 2026. And it's perhaps going overlooked that the most attention-commanding AI offerings have been struggling.
Let's dig into four notable examples:
SK Hynix
The South Korean chipmaker was responsible for the latest mega-offering, which saw it raise $26.5 billion by listing ADRs on the Nasdaq, the biggest-ever US listing by a foreign company.
After a strong first day of trading, shares tumbled 9% on Monday. The closing price of $152.35 was below the shares' $170 debut price, and just 2% above where the deal priced last Thursday.
The decline coincided with a record 15% plunge for Korean-listed SK Hynix shares during Asian trading hours. Shares rose 4% on Tuesday. Investors are worried about the sustainability of chip demand ahead of a critical earnings season, and those jitters are spilling into the US market.
SpaceX
The biggest IPO in history was met with excitement for investors … for a few days at least. Shares peaked 58% above their offer price three days post-IPO.
It's been a rocky road since then, with the stock finishing Monday at $139.14, just slightly above the $135 offering price, and below the stock's first-day trading debut of $150. In other words, early investors and insiders are in the green, but retail investors who jumped in post-offering most likely aren't.
Cerebras
Cerebras — an AI-infrastructure and chip company that operates data centers — is another example of a company that came out of the gate strong, but has struggled to keep up the momentum. It surged as much as 109% on its first day, but has fallen nearly 50% since then.
Now, similar to SpaceX, the company's shares are sitting in the no man's land between where it priced and where it debuted.
CoreWeave
Let's travel back to March 2025. Data-center builder and operator CoreWeave received an initially muted reaction to its IPO, only for shares to catch fire a few weeks later as the excitement mounted around a global AI-infrastructure buildout. They ended up surging nearly 400% from its offer price, through mid-June.
But CoreWeave has struggled since reaching that peak, losing much of that market value in the ensuing months. Shares currently sit 55% below all-time highs.
The CoreWeave situation shows that even the most sought-after offerings lose luster after a while. It also shows that timing is everything — the early investors who sold at last year's peak made a killing.
