Venture Capital, AI, and the Era of Mega IPOs

AI | 2 Mar 2026

Executive Summary

Venture capital is increasingly concentrated in AI-driven opportunities. Investment spans the full stack — from application layers and large language models (LLMs) to infrastructure such as semiconductors, power, and data centers. Unlike the SaaS era, this cycle is heavily capital expenditure (CapEx) driven.

Rather than a broad-based reopening of the IPO window, the coming years may see a handful of mega-scale listings. Companies such as SpaceX, Anduril, Databricks, OpenAI, and Anthropic could represent landmark IPO events, with returns concentrated among top-tier venture managers.

A sustained trend in private markets is the extended duration of private ownership. Many companies now scale significantly before entering public markets, allowing private investors to capture more value creation.

As private companies remain private longer, direct secondary transactions have become an increasingly important mechanism for liquidity, portfolio diversification, and exit planning.

Artificial intelligence is changing both the opportunity set and the capital requirements of global venture investing.

In this episode of the GloryHouse Podcast, Jason Huang of GloryHouse Wealth Management speaks with Phil Cummins, Managing Director at StepStone Group, about the structural shifts reshaping venture capital, growth investing and private-market liquidity.

The discussion follows the AI investment stack from applications and large language models to semiconductors, power and data centres. Phil explains why this cycle is more capital-intensive than the SaaS era, why a small number of mega-scale IPOs may dominate the next listing window, and how value creation increasingly occurs while companies remain private.

The episode also examines direct secondaries as a source of liquidity for founders and early investors, and as a portfolio-management tool for private-market investors. Manager selection remains critical: access, underwriting discipline and portfolio construction can matter as much as exposure to the underlying theme.

About Phil Cummins

Phil Cummins is a Managing Director at StepStone Group, with experience across venture capital, growth investing and private-market strategies.

About StepStone Group

StepStone Group is a global private-markets investment firm with capabilities across fund investments, direct investments and secondaries.

About the GloryHouse Podcast

GloryHouse Wealth Management produces the GloryHouse Podcast for high-net-worth families, business owners and globally connected families. The series explores wealth management, asset allocation, family succession, next-generation education and global investment through conversations with investment professionals and industry specialists.

Disclaimer

This video has been prepared by GloryHouse Wealth Management Pty Ltd (ACN 690 671 606), Corporate Authorised Representative (CAR) of GloryHouse Investments Pty Ltd (ACN 690 671 553, AFSL 700198). The content in this video is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal or tax advice. This material is intended solely for wholesale clients as defined under section 761G of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and is not intended for retail clients. Any views expressed are general in nature and do not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. All investments involve risk. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.