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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
The last record-breaking IPO, SpaceX, wasn\u2019t a fluke,\u00a0and\u00a0the next big IPO won\u2019t be a SaaS company or a consumer app either. It\u2019s going to be in the growing industry of civilization technology, i.e., the companies that undergird the structures and systems necessary for civilization to survive in a tumultuous and changing landscape. Given the growing\u00a0size of the human population, the rapid pace of the changing technological landscape, and the increasing uncertainty of environmental trajectories, civilization-level technologies will continue to capture outsized investments and then,\u00a0ultimately, market share.<\/p>\n
Civilization technology includes businesses that support the capacity to maintain today\u2019s level of\u00a0 civilization globally and to adjust for the growing size of populations and their\u00a0demands in the future.\u00a0This includes businesses across the sectors of\u00a0energy and nuclear (fission SMRs,\u00a0fusion, grid), AI infrastructure and compute (data centers, chips, power for AI), advanced manufacturing and reshoring, defense and national security, space and aerospace, robotics and industrial automation, supply-chain resilience, biosecurity and synthetic biology, and water and agriculture. At the highest level, they focus on protecting either the built environment or the physical environment that allows our built environment to survive. By extension, they protect the fundamental basics that humans require to survive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Tesla are the obvious picks, but the field includes a wide swath of businesses\u00a0that range in size from small startups to behemoth businesses.<\/p>\n
Defense and autonomy.<\/strong>\u00a0The obvious pick is\u00a0Anduril<\/a>. Revenue doubled to roughly $2.2 billion in 2025, and it\u2019s widely regarded as the sector\u2019s most significant potential IPO. The dark horse is Saronic, the autonomous naval shipbuilder that raised $1.75 billion this spring at a $9.25 billion valuation, more than doubling its worth in about a year.<\/p>\n Fusion and energy.<\/strong>\u00a0The obvious pick is the fusion field, where public markets have already arrived, is TAE, which is going public via a $6 billion merger with Trump Media. Additional players include General Fusion via SPAC and privately held Helion, which is fresh off a $465 million raise at a $15.5 billion valuation to build Microsoft\u2019s power plant.<\/p>\n Biotech and biosecurity.<\/strong>\u00a0The obvious pick is\u00a0Colossal Biosciences<\/a>, Texas\u2019s first decacorn at a $10.3 billion valuation after its $400 million Series C. The business is a headline maker with its de-extinction business, but the underlying technology platforms, which include genetic engineering, artificial wombs, and its ViaGen cloning acquisition, allow for applications from conservation to agriculture to human health. The dark horse is the broader biosecurity layer \u2014 companies building pathogen surveillance, rapid vaccine platforms, and synthetic biology infrastructure.<\/p>\n AI infrastructure and compute.<\/strong>\u00a0The obvious picks are Anthropic, which filed on June 1st, and Databricks, which is anticipated to file on this year\u2019s IPO calendar. But the dark horse thesis is companies that are data-center builders, grid-buildout firms, and power-delivery companies, who all get paid regardless of which lab wins.<\/p>\n