Mega-IPOs broaden appeal of tycoon wealth tactics

Meta Platforms

15/10/2026 13:00

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
By Pranav Kiran
TORONTO, Oct 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Mega initial public offerings like Anthropic may create a new class of everyday millionaires. Unlike boss Dario Amodei, however, employees often have no easy way to tap that wealth before the day their company floats. Selling shares sacrifices upside and incurs taxes. Borrowing against equity, a staple of private banking, could become another way to unlock a pool of stock-based pay.
There is a wide gap between the glamor and reality of stock-based pay. Sure, graffiti artist David Choe was paid in stock for painting Facebook’s office and turned millionaire when the company now known as Meta Platforms META.O went public. But most startup employees don't work at unicorns, Silicon Valley slang for private companies worth over $1 billion. The median employee is more likely to see a low five-figure payout, and their firm sold for less than $100 million, Nick Maggiulli, chief operating officer at wealth management firm Ritholtz, reckons.
Unicorn exits can generate life-changing wealth. But higher interest rates and lower relative valuations on public markets mean there's a backlog of giant private firms that can't, or won't, go public. These are now worth $5.3 trillion in aggregate, PitchBook data shows. Eager venture investors and control-hungry founders have meanwhile pushed the median age of companies going public to 14 years, according to University of Florida’s Jay Ritter.
Companies have turned to private market deals. Hotly anticipated IPO candidates like Databricks and OpenAI are increasingly running tender offers to buy back some employee shares. Such deals executed on Nasdaq Private Market rose from about $3 billion in 2023 to just under $15 billion in 2025.
Borrowing against that stock is another method. This offers employees liquidity, without the need to wait for an IPO or give up potential future gains. Such services though have been reserved for ultra wealthy clients with large portfolios and other assets to pledge as collateral.
Yet, the pool of potential borrowers is expanding. Employees typically own a larger chunk of stock than founders by the time a startup hits a Series C funding round, according to Carta. That prospect has spawned upstarts like Techdollar. Secfi, which operates as an asset manager, has facilitated about $1 billion in financing for private startup shareholders against their holdings.
Stocks now make up more than a third of US households’ net worth. For private startup employees, this can be as high as 86%, according to Secfi data. Borrowing against it could become less niche.
     
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(Editing by Robert Cyran; Production by Maya Nandhini)
((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on KIRAN/pranavkiran.t@thomsonreuters.com))