That's not how an ATM works. Once the offering is approved (check the filings), and no restrictions are in place, they can raise money by dumping the shares at any time. They have to run the stock up premarket for 2 main reasons (there are more, but i ll just focus on the top 2) 
1) higher stock price (via the premarket prop job & subsequent gap up) means less shares to dump. if stock is $1, u have to dump 10M shares just to raise $10M. that would CRUSH the stock. But if u can gap the stock to let's say $5, u only have to dump 2M shares to raise that $10M
2) 2nd reason they HAVE to gap it up premarket is for liquidity. u cant dump millions of shares on a shitty stock if there is no volume. So gap up = stock pops up on scanners = reels in amateur sheep who like to chase. Their buy orders provides the liquidity to unload the ATM
Now this is just for a ATM gap up scenario. Remember ATM offerings are NOT the same as regular after-hour or intraday offerings. Study the diff between ATM offerings & other offerings (registered direct, bought deals, private etc). Diff mechanics are involved.
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