Here’s a fun challenge. We’re going to write a whole article about the IPO market in 2026, and we’re only going to write the word “SpaceX” one time. And there it goes. We already used it.

While banner names—which for reasons stated above we, uhh, can’t actually write again—may get all the attention, their existence shouldn’t dominate the story.

“Any one of the potential hyper jumbo IPOs that are rumored to be out there…any one of them could have gone public in any market,” Mark Schwartz, EY’s IPO and SPAC advisory leader, told CFO Brew.

“The fact that they’re all thinking about coming public now is a reflection of two things. One is, the benefits of being a public company have never gone away. And two is, the feeling around the IPO market is finally at a point where companies like that are not just contemplating, but are actively pursuing the public markets.”

Keep reading.—NP

As AI becomes more sentien—I mean, continues to change the basic functions of finance and accounting roles, some roles are likely to be more secure than others, recent research from Bain & Company found.

Bain’s survey of 102 senior finance executives in January and February found that the majority expected headcounts in tax, treasury, and investor relations subfunctions to remain steady over the next 12 months.

But about half expected the impact of AI to reduce headcount in day-to-day, or transactional, finance, like accounting and period close, procure to pay, and invoice to cash, Bain Partner Michael Heric and Emilia Fallas, an EVP in the company’s corporate support practice, noted in the survey report.

Surprising or not? Research on projections of AI’s impact on overall headcount has predicted little effect so far. A JPMorgan survey of 1,500 CFOs and finance executives at US middle-market firms last November found that a majority (60%) thought AI would have no impact on overall headcount this year.

Keep reading.—DL

How should CIOs plan out their AI strategy? One industry leader says it’s critical to think two or three years in advance—while also taking IT teams’ current bandwidth into consideration.

Gary Sorrentino, global CIO of Zoom, sat down with IT Brew to discuss how IT teams are handling the pressure to integrate AI into the modern tech stack. “I think we’re at this point right now where IT teams need to prove to the users that what I’m doing for you and what I’m enabling you to do is going to make your job better,” Sorrentino said. “They’re throwing a lot of AI, people are expecting results quicker than they’re happening.”

How is Zoom prioritizing AI governance and communicating with employees about their use of AI?

AI is not a mandate. I think that’s where a lot of companies are failing. They’re mandating that people use something they don’t understand, and that’s going to be a rebellion…What we do is we spend time showing our employees, through employee groups, chat groups, things like that, the value. People will move to value; people will not move to features.

Keep reading on IT Brew.—CN

If your “system” is a heroic mix of spreadsheets and crossed fingers, you’re not alone. On May 7, join CFO Brew and industry leaders to see how modern finance teams are actually connecting their data, ditching the duct tape, and building a source of truth that doesn’t require a daily leap of faith. Register now.