US Government Shutdown Ends, but Here’s Why the IPO Floodgates Likely Won’t Open

The longest US government shutdown in history is over. But don’t expect a roaring return for IPOs now that the SEC can resume normal operations.

“Just because the government reopens, it’s not like all of a sudden, companies will rush out to go public. You have to go back out; it’s a process, it takes time,” explains Brian White, co-head of technology investment banking at Piper Sandler. “[The shutdown] definitely slowed things down and has been a huge challenge.”

President Donald Trump signed a measure Wednesday night that ended the 43-day shutdown, funding the US government through the end of January. After eight Democratic senators broke with their party to support the bill, the House passed the measure on Wednesday and sent it to the president’s desk.

Experts say that after the shutdown froze public listings, an IPO rebound in the fourth quarter is unlikely. Due to upcoming US holidays and uncertainty around when the SEC will be back at full operations, a condensed timeline won’t work for many companies early in the IPO process.

But the shutdown did confirm that volatility and uncertainty are here to stay. “Really, what it’s all proving is you can’t hit a window,” says Lise Buyer, partner and founder of IPO advisory firm Class V Group. “There were a number of folks thinking they would go public in the second quarter, but then the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs happened. With the volatility coming out, there’s just this sense you can’t control it.”

Startups and investors had hoped to maintain the momentum of US listings that began in third quarter through the customary Labor Day-to-Thanksgiving IPO window. After a slow period, US public listings of VC-backed companies had their best quarter in almost four years, with 15 IPOs generating $42.1 billion in exit value.

Fourth-quarter IPOs have been lagging, and the high-profile companies that have gone public during the shutdown have seen lackluster debuts. Navan, a corporate travel and expense management startup, went public at the height of the shutdown and dropped 20% during its first day of trading.

“Overall, the pieces are there, the good companies are there, they’re relatively ready, and they’re far along in the process,” says Bradley Weber, co-chair of the capital markets practice at Goodwin Procter. “There’s just all this noise that’s really throwing people for a loop.”

The hope is also fading that a spate of postponed IPOs from the fourth quarter could lead to a more active first quarter of 2026. SEC rules require companies to submit an up-to-date financial audit for the previous year by mid-February, making the timeline for companies in the pipeline tight.

The uncertainty and volatility have investors hoping that next year will at least be more stable. “Starting from the beginning of the year, it’s really been ‘pick your poison’ [with] the things happening in the macro environment and geopolitical environment,” says Adam Blaylock, EY America’s technology sector lead. “So much has been thrown at investors, but it all only slowed the tape—it didn’t stop the movie.”