Newly minted rich and those anticipating huge IPOs are fueling buying and charter spree in the private jet sector

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Aviation lawyer Amanda Applegate skipped her annual vacation last month as a surge of wealth from AI startups and SpaceX sent a wave of tech investors shopping for private jets, ⁠burying her in paperwork for aircraft-purchase agreements.

The ⁠attorney, based in Cleveland, Ohio, attributed the rush to a handful ​of major “liquidity events” in the tech industry. The initial public offering (IPO) of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, whose holdings include artificial-intelligence firm xAI, raised a record $85.7bn for the company and generated unprecedented employee and founder wealth.