Oura's postponed initial public offering is part of an alarming trend for IPO investors. Several other companies have recently pulled their IPO plans, invariably citing a volatile stock market.

But Oura, the maker of smart rings that track a user's heart rate, sleep patterns and other biometric data, may not really be a victim of the recent pullback in stocks. You can blame AI.

To be sure, the S&P 500, despite some recent volatility because of rising bond yields, is still up 12% this year-and is less than 2% below its all-time high.

The real reason for some of the IP-No's? It may be that investors only have eyes for Anthropic, which is currently on track to debut in November.

Oura joins a growing list of companies that canceled their IPOs at the last minute. Bamboo Insurance Services, titanium powder producer Amaero and nuclear power equipment company Holtec have also shelved their deals this month.

"Oura's postponement in line with other issuers delaying IPOs is pointing to a weaker market than we had foreseen as recently as a few weeks ago. The structural pressures from such rapidly rising yields cannot be overstated," said Samuel Kerr, global head of equity capital markets at Mergermarket.

Several other recent IPOs have flopped in their market debuts, which may be giving companies like Oura pause. Both Orion180 Insurance and biotech Electra Therapeutics went public earlier this month and each stock is trading more than 20% below their IPO price. So are shares of sandwich chain Jersey Mike's, which began trading on the last day of July.

Another reason for IPO troubles: It could be that investors are being more discerning and aren't buying shares of newly public companies with questionable fundamentals and not a lot of growth potential.

But Anthropic, which is reportedly targeting an IPO for November, could be the most important reason. An exchange-traded fund tied to the Claude developer's ecosystem began trading in August. And several ETF providers have already filed for plans to list leveraged single-stock funds tied to Anthropic's stock once it begins trading.

There are others that could be sucking up the oxygen for new offerings. The massive debuts of SpaceX and U.S. listing of South Korean AI chip giant SK Hynix in July might also have contributed to the latest crop of weak IPOs.

For now though, another AI-related company remains on track to go public this week. Accelevation, a manufacturer of electrical infrastructure for hyperscalers and data centers, is planning to sell 30 million shares at a price range of $20 to $24 a share. At the high end of that range, the company would be valued at $5.4 billion.

If Accelevation winds up going public and doing reasonably well, it could mean that IPO investors only have eyes for AI-and that other companies looking to list on Wall Street may need to stay private longer.