These private companies could be the 'magnificent seven' of the future

By Steve Gelsi

SpaceX, OpenAI, Scale AI, Databricks, Fanatics, Stripe and Rippling make list compiled by private stock trading firm Forge Global

Private stock trading company Forge Global on Wednesday unveiled its own "private magnificent seven" of major names that draw big volume on its platform.

The companies rank as seven of the most most capitalized and best performing companies in the private market, Forge Global said.

The seven are: SpaceX, OpenAI, ScaleAI, Databricks, Fanatics, Stripe and Rippling.

Of the seven, SpaceX and OpenAI have generated the most headlines in recent months.

SpaceX is the space company launched by billionaire and Tesla Inc. (TSLA) co-founder Elon Musk.

OpenAI is the originator of ChatGPT that's reportedly raising billions from investors, including potential money from Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Nvidia Corp. (NVDA).

ScaleAI is a specialist in infrastructure for AI computing.

Fanatics is a digital sports platform that offers merchandise, trading cards and collectibles, as well as sports betting and iGaming.

Stripe is a financial services company, and Rippling specializes in human resources on its software-as-a-service platform.

Databricks runs the Mosaic AI Gateway to manage AI traffic across networks for Meta Llama, Anthropic Claude and OpenAI GPT.

Forge Global said the share prices of the seven privately traded companies have outperformed the S&P 500 index's SPX publicly traded so-called "magnificent seven" that have fueled much of the gains in the stock market in recent years.

Those seven stocks include Tesla, Apple, Nvidia, Amazon.com (AMZN), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) and Meta Platforms Inc. (META).

The private magnificent seven have a collective market value of about $473 billion, Forge Global said.

"Though smaller in size, the private magnificent seven has outperformed its public market counterpart by 16.9% in the 12-month period ending August 31," Forge Global said.

The private group's price performance rose 55.3%, outpacing the 38.4% gain in the public magnificent seven's rise over the same period, Forge Global said.

While Stripe and others have been the subject of speculation around initial public offerings, they have multiple ways of raising capital in private markets, Forge Global (FRGE) said.

For individual investors to trade privately-held stocks, they must qualify as an accredited investor, which is someone with a net worth of $1 million outside the value of their primary home.

Also read: Companies are trading pre-IPO stocks as a new asset class

-Steve Gelsi

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09-14-24 0548ET

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