While numerous startups established before ChatGPT's arrival are finding it difficult to adapt to the AI landscape, Vercel—a decade-old development tool and hosting platform—is thriving thanks to the surge in AI-generated applications and agents. At the HumanX conference in San Francisco last week, Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch highlighted this shift, noting, “When I started this company, only tens of millions of people could deploy. Now we’re seeing that everybody in the world can create an app.”

This wave of app creation by non-developers has significantly boosted Vercel's operations. In light of this expansion, Rauch was questioned onstage about the company's IPO intentions. He indicated that Vercel already functions with the rigor expected of a public firm, stating, “Vercel is very much a working public company.” Regarding the timing of such a move, Rauch explained, “There’s no perfect timeline or quarter I can give. The company’s ready and getting more ready for it every day.”

Although 2026 was anticipated to be a robust period for new listings, a steep decline in software stocks—driven by concerns over AI disruption—has largely stalled IPO activity. Beyond notable exceptions like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI, discussions of public offerings have mostly quieted. Once any of those high-profile companies debut, likely with major success, the opportunity for others may reopen. In the meantime, most tech leaders have become reticent about their IPO plans, yet Rauch is openly signaling Vercel's preparedness, hinting at a potential listing in the near future. When asked what Wall Street should understand about Vercel, Rauch emphasized, “The total addressable market of infrastructure has now grown, and it simply has no ceiling.”

Vercel is positioning itself to become the go-to platform for hosting applications developed by AI agents, anticipating a future where these agents outpace human creators. Rauch observed, “Agents are very prolific at deploying,” revealing that 30% of apps on Vercel's platform already originate from agents. He believes agents will speed up software production by simplifying the creation of tailored solutions over buying existing software. “All of that software… it needs to go somewhere, and we think it’s going to be Vercel,” he added. In September, Vercel secured a $300 million Series F round led by Accel, valuing the company at $9.3 billion. It competes with hosting services from Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services, while also offering v0, a visual coding tool for building websites and apps.