The IPO Comeback: Why Tech Giants Are Finally Going Public | All-In Liquidity IPO Panel

The public markets are experiencing a renaissance in tech IPOs, driven by a convergence of AI and space-based infrastructure—two trends that are no longer futuristic but foundational. Andrew Feldman of Cerebris and Will Marshall of Planet Labs, both newly public founders, reveal that going public isn’t about glamour or instant wealth, but about credibility, liquidity, and long-term focus. Feldman describes the IPO process as a grueling, paperwork-heavy ordeal with little immediate business impact—yet it validated years of relentless effort. Marshall shares how Planet Labs transformed from a niche space data play into a critical national security and climate monitoring tool, with 60% of revenue now from military and government clients. But the real game-changer, they argue, is the coming era of space-based data centers: computing infrastructure in orbit, powered by solar energy and enabled by plummeting launch costs. Will Marshall predicts that within a decade, most compute will be in space—cheaper, more efficient, and 24/7 powered by sun-synchronous orbits. Andrew Feldman counters that the real bottleneck isn’t launch cost, but building high-speed inter-satellite communication networks—still a hard engineering problem. Both agree that the public markets are now the right arena for innovation, not just for capital, but for sharpening focus and accountability.