You can’t use ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini without data centers to provide the massive amounts of computing power necessary for these artificial-intelligence models. That’s a key reason why top data-center stocks Digital Realty Trust and Equinix have surged this year. Now, another data-center company is looking to test investors’ appetite for all things AI—as well as for initial public offerings.
Csquare, which operates 64 data centers, mostly in the U.S., is set to go public this week on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CQSR. The company is in a quiet period before the IPO, but Csquare noted in a blog post in early June that demand should continue to increase because of AI.
“As AI becomes part of everyday applications across industries, organizations are starting to rethink where workloads run, how performance is measured, and what kind of infrastructure is needed,” Csquare said in the post.
The company, which also has data centers in Montreal and London, is looking to sell 50 million shares at a price range of $23 to $27. At the high end of that range, Csquare would raise $1.35 billion and have a market value of $4.2 billion.
The company is backed by real estate and investing giant Brookfield, which will have a 67% ownership stake in Csquare following the IPO. Whether or not that helps Csquare as a public company remains to be seen. The company’s fundamentals are mixed.
For starters, Csquare isn’t profitable. Its revenue grew 16% in the first quarter of 2026 to $270.5 million. But net losses rose from $34.9 million a year ago to $66 million in the first three months of this year.
Csquare is also going public as investors are growing a bit more skeptical about AI-related stocks. Memory chip leaders Micron and South Korea’s SK Hynix—whichmade its debuton the U.S. stock market on Friday and rose 13%—have beenincredibly volatilein the past few weeks for example. And shares of hyperscalers Microsoft and Meta Platforms are both down this year, in part due toconcerns about their AI spending.
Recent IPOs have pulled back following promising debuts as well. SpaceX is the most prominent example. Its stock surged as much as 67% from its IPO price in the first few days following its mid-June debut, but has since pulled back more than 35% from its highs. AI chip company Cerebras Systems and geothermal energy firmFervohave both fallen sharply from their IPO peaks.
Another data-center company, Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust, has also been a lackluster performer since its IPO in mid-May. The company, managed by an affiliate of investment giant Blackstone, is up only slightly from its IPO price.
So Csquare may find itself caught squarely in the middle of two negative narratives—growing concerns about valuations for AI stocks and worries about demand for IPOs.
Comments