Investor sentiment toward technology IPOs is showing signs of revival, with conversations at JPMorgan Chase's annual tech conference in Boston reflecting a notable shift in focus — away from frontier AI model developers and toward the hardware and utility companies powering the AI buildout.

The mood in Boston

according to reports from the JPMorgan event, AI continued to dominate investor discussions over the two-day conference. However, the conversations have moved on from the outsized attention previously commanded by Anthropic and OpenAI — the two most prominent private frontier AI labs — toward companies a few layers removed: hardware manufacturers and utility providers that form the backbone of large-scale AI deployment.

The shift is significant. For much of the past year, private capital has concentrated heavily in model-focused firms, with Anthropic — founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees and backed by Amazon and Google — and OpenAI itself absorbing the bulk of investor mindshare alongside multibillion-dollar funding rounds.

Why it matters

The rotation in attention toward enabling infrastructure — semiconductors, power, and data centre capacity — historically signals a maturing phase of a technology cycle. When investors begin scrutinising the picks-and-shovels layer over the headline application developers, it often foreshadows a broader re-rating of where public-market value will accrue.

The technology IPO window, which contracted sharply in 2022 amid rising interest rates after a peak in 2021, appears to be reopening. A renewed appetite for listings would have direct implications for companies across the AI supply chain that have deferred public offerings.

The competitive backdrop

OpenAI, founded in 2015 and widely recognised for releasing ChatGPT in 2022, and Anthropic, known for its Claude family of large language models, have both relied primarily on private rounds and strategic partnerships rather than public listings. The current investor mood suggests the market may be looking beyond these headline names toward companies with clearer near-term paths to public-market revenue.

Hardware and energy companies serving the AI sector — from semiconductor designers to grid infrastructure providers — are increasingly seen as more tangible bets in an environment where foundation-model differentiation remains difficult to price.

What's next

The direction of investor conversations at marquee banking conferences often previews deal flow in the quarters ahead. If the sentiment observed at JPMorgan's Boston event holds, the next wave of technology IPO activity could be led not by AI software names but by the industrial and semiconductor companies enabling the AI infrastructure buildout. Watch for public listing activity and updated valuation benchmarks in those sectors as the clearest indicators of whether this enthusiasm translates into action.