Lynn Martin on AI, IPOs and the future of public markets
📅 Jul 14, 2026Axios Live and Axios11 MIN42 SEGMENTS · 2 SPEAKERS
Axios' Courtenay Brown sits down with New York Stock Exchange Group President Lynn Martin to discuss how AI is reshaping ...
What Lynn Martin said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Lynn Martin, President of NYSE Group, discussed the Trump accounts launch, retail investing trends, AI's impact on markets, and NYSE Texas. She described the Oval Office bell-ringing ceremony where President Trump told children they now own pieces of Boeing and McDonald's, helping them grasp company ownership. Martin argued retail investing is here to stay, citing pandemic-era growth and recent IPO allocations like Bullish's 20% retail stake. She praised Trump accounts for promoting financial literacy and giving young Americans a stake in the country through S&P ETFs. On AI, she compared its adoption speed to the internet but noted it's broadening into energy and infrastructure sectors with expected outsized returns. Regarding NYSE Texas, she said it's not political but a business decision, noting Texas is the NYSE's biggest state by market cap at about $4 trillion. She affirmed NYSE has no intention of leaving New York City. She concluded that public markets are essential for funding AI's capital needs, though private markets remain important for incubation.
Key takeaways
NYSE Texas has about 120 listed companies and Texas represents roughly $4 trillion in NYSE market cap, the largest of any state.
Bullish was one of the first IPOs last year with about 20% retail allocation, signaling a shift toward including retail investors in IPOs.
Martin said AI is broadening into energy and infrastructure sectors, which she expects to see outsized returns for a longer period.
NYSE has no intention of leaving New York City despite Texas's business-friendly environment under Governor Abbott.
Martin argued public markets are the only consistent source of capital for medium-to-long-term needs of every revolution, including AI.
We're going to talk about that. So, the last time I think the public saw you here was earlier this month in the Oval Office. Something very cool. President Trump ringing the opening bell from the Oval Office. And that was a first. Yep. Never happened before.
So, here's what we want to ask you. We want a little bit of intrigue. What's something that happened in the room that morning that the cameras did not see?
That's tough because the cameras got a whole lot of the kids and the kids were
Their faces were just struck by the moment, which I mean you saw a lot of the really cute things where the one kid fell asleep and the other was supporting that child. But I don't think the cameras caught when the president was talking to the kids about 'you now own a piece of Boeing, you now own a piece of McDonald's.' And the look on their faces were like, wow. And they were kind of grasping what ownership of companies, ownership of America actually meant, and they could really relate that to their day-to-day.
So, the bell ringing ceremony was the official launch of the Trump accounts. I need you to help me with something. We were talking backstage and I have a very cynical view of what's going on, but let me lay it out.
So, there's a lot of momentum right now around getting Americans to invest. The administration is launching Trump accounts, investment accounts for newborns, right? Retail investors have a huge force in financial markets. Companies like SpaceX are trying to find ways to include retail investors in their IPO. So, what is going on here? So my cynical view is that this is just a feature of the bull market. When stocks are going up, it's so good to get everyone in. But something tells me you have a less cynical view of what's going on.
I do have a less cynical view. So if we take a few steps back, retail investing really got their start in force during the pandemic when everyone was in their basement figuring out what to do. And you saw apps like Robin Hood really gain hold. Retail investing's been around forever. Yeah.
By the way, you know, it's just taking more direct ownership
is what you started to see during the pandemic.
So you started to see last year allocations during IPOs to the retail community because that was a big criticism that the retail community have. And
We want a piece of this too.
We want a piece of the IPO. We don't just want to be able to participate in the market when the stock has been opened for trading and the aftermarkets after that. So we saw a few deals actually have pretty outsized retail allocations more towards the crypto side of the business. I think bullish was one of the first ones that went out last year where they think they went out with about 20% retail allocation.
And that actually made sense for that one because it's a cryptonative platform. It's speaking to that real retail enduser.
I think. So, I think for the long term, the retail investing public is here to stay. And I think that is a good thing because of the technology. You're going to be able to have an outcome-based input as opposed to just a traditional buy or sell of a security. You can go into a platform and talk about I want my assets allocated in this way across fixed income, across equities, across this type of sector, that type of sector.
11 more exchanges in this transcript
Sign in free to read the rest of this interview. No card required.
Martin, L. (2026, July 14). Lynn Martin on AI, IPOs and the future of public markets [Interview transcript]. Axios Live and Axios. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1094075/
MLA
Lynn Martin. "Lynn Martin on AI, IPOs and the future of public markets." Axios Live and Axios, 14 Jul. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1094075/.
BibTeX
@misc{martin2026_1094075,
author = {Lynn Martin},
title = {Lynn Martin on AI, IPOs and the future of public markets},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Axios Live and Axios. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jul},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1094075/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
