Companies raised more than $1 trillion in global equity markets for only the second time ever over the first nine months of the year, yet higher borrowing costs and artificial-intelligence fears are starting to dampen spirits, a Mergermarket report said.

Finnish smart-ring maker Oura postponed its public offering last month blaming "uncertainty in the IPO market." The company joined a host of private companies that reportedly delayed their anticipated IPO plans, including SoftBank-backed SB Energy. Cloud-services company Nscale may be delaying its roadshow, The Wall Street Journal reported. However, the company said it has no plans to delay its IPO.

Markets had been expecting a bumper third quarter following an ebullient start to the year crowned by SpaceX's record-breaking IPO in June, Mergermarket's head of global equity capital markets Samuel Kerr said. However, Federal Reserve tightening and multidecade highs in Treasury yields have soured the mood.

"The spike in yields has caused everyone to take a breath," Kerr said.

For all the third quarter's weakness, 2026 remains on track to be a banner year for equity capital markets. Companies raised $1.08 trillion across 5,566 deals over the first nine months of the year, a figure that surpasses the full-year totals reached in the past four years.

The average equity market fundraising completed over the first nine months was much larger than over the comparable period in 2021--the highest-volume equity capital market year on record. This year, the total volume of deals reached $1 trillion in 1,050 fewer equity capital raises than 2021. In the Americas, the number of fundraisers completed was the lowest since the third quarter of 2024.

But the headline numbers mask an exceptionally AI-focused market, Mergermarket's Kerr said.

"We have never seen investment this concentrated," Kerr said. "This is a highly concentrated investment in technology. And when we say technology, we mean artificial intelligence."

Technology deals made up almost half of all equity capital market deals in the third quarter. Two deals dwarfed all others, and both were linked to AI. South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix's $26.5 billion listing of depository receipts in New York was the largest fundraising of the period, followed by Intel's $23 billion capital raise in August.

Smaller companies seeking equity capital are being crowded out by larger issuances, Kerr said--including the possible November listing of frontier AI model maker Anthropic. But the concentration around large AI bets leaves the market vulnerable to a softening in AI enthusiasm.

"The current concern around AI is probably the biggest thing that's caused people to take a beat," said Danny Tricot, head of European capital markets at law firm Skadden.

For Tricot, talk of higher bond yields and difficult market conditions distracts from what really puts the brakes on public listings: fears about investor returns.

"Ultimately, it all comes down to valuations," said Tricot, whose work focuses on London and European markets. Moreover, companies don't feel a need to rush to public markets given the ready availability of private capital, Tricot said.