The initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian multinational petroleum and natural gas company, on the Tadawul in December 2019, was the largest public offering globally ever as of December 2024. The IPO of Saudi Aramco raised approximately 25.6 billion U.S. dollars. Why do companies opt for IPOs? An initial public offering (IPO), also known as ‘going public’, is the company’s first stock sale to the public. IPO happens when an initially private company decides to open up to the stock market, taking the first step to become a publicly traded enterprise. Shares are traded in the open market after the initial sales, and any public investor can take part on the trade. In the United States alone, 154 companies made their public-market debut in 2023. IPOs are made by different companies for a number of reasons. Smaller sized companies may seek an IPO for access to capital and cheaper credit for further expansion. Other companies that may already be of considerable size, however, may use an initial public offering to other ends. Opening up to the stock market can also facilitate merger and acquisitions, considering stocks can be part of a future deal. Chinese companies feature twice Two Chinese companies featured in the list as of 2024. Alibaba had the second largest after Saudi Aramco, with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in tenth place. Alibaba is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (as well as the Hong Kong Exchange), making the company’s IPO also the largest one in the U.S. to date. ICBC is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

At nearly 22 billion U.S. dollars, the 2014 initial public offering (IPO) of Alibaba Group Holding Limited remains the largest IPO in the United States ever. Trailing by almost four billion U.S. dollars, Visa takes second place, followed by ENEL SpA, an energy company based in Italy.

What is an IPO?

An IPO is when a private company offers shares to the public for the first time through a stock exchange. Companies do this to raise money, as seen with Alibaba. However, public companies are subject to more scrutiny, such as publishing quarterly reports for investors. Also, not all IPOs are profitable. A bad IPO can result in significant losses.

Companies that could go public

Unicorns are private companies valued over a billion U.S. dollars. Any of these could go public, raising significant funds. However, most IPOs are valued in the millions, not billions. The median deal size of these offerings in the United States tends to be a little more than 100 million U.S. dollars. Investors keep a watch for the next IPO, since a strong offering means high returns for those who buy the stock early.

As of December 2024, the largest IPO in the UK took place in 2011 by Glencore International, the world's largest natural resource company headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, with a total market capitalization at IPO of 36 billion British pounds.

As of December 2023, the multinational commodity trading and mining company Glencore International had the largest all-time IPO on the London Stock Exchange. The Anglo-Swiss company debuted on the LSE in May 2011 with an opening price of 36.34 billion British pounds. An initial public offering is the process by which the shares of a private company are sold to public investors for the first time.

The statistics presents the all-time largest initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United Kingdom (UK) as of December 2024, by money raised. As of April 2024, the largest IPO in the UK took place in 2011 by Glencore International, a natural resource company headquartered in Switzerland, with approximately 6.2 billion British pounds raised.

Cit was the underwriter of the initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Aramco in April 2019. At almost 29 billion U.S. dollars, this was the largest all-time IPO globally as of October 2021. This was followed by Alibaba's 2014 IPO worth just over 21 billion U.S. dollars, underwritten by Credit Suisse.

Who were the leading underwriters in the U.S.?
Underwriting is the process through which an investment bank (the underwriter) acts as a broker between the issuing company and the investing public to help the issuing company sell its initial set of shares. As of October 2021, the underwriters of the largest IPOs in the United States were Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan – the combined value of their underwritten IPOs reaching almost 70 billion U.S. dollars. When taking a company public, investment banks charge underwriting fees, which are the largest single direct cost associated with an IPO. In 2020, the underwriting fees for deals in the U.S. which were valued between 500 million and one billion U.S. dollars, amounted to more than five percent of the gross proceeds from the offering.

What does the global IPO market look like? Going public is typically a way for private companies to raise capital for expansion, although venture capitalists can also use IPOs as exit strategies. In 2020, mainland China had the largest number of traditional IPOs than any other region worldwide. This was followed by the United States, which saw a significant increase in the number of IPOs that year.

On September 13, 2023, Arm Holdings plc raised 5.2 billion U.S. dollars on its public debut on the Nasdaq Stock Market, making it the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the United States in 2023. Only three of the ten largest IPOs in the U.S. that year each raised over one billion U.S. dollars in capital.

Why do companies go public?

Private companies have limited access to capital and mainly use traditional sources to finance their expenditures. While such firms have more freedom to operate without reporting to investors, this also blocks the companies from raising access directly from the public. The value raised by IPOs can be significant. In hopes of gaining access to this capital, the number of IPOs in the United States generally exceeds 100 firms each year.

Risks of an IPO

IPO is a long and costly process. It necessitates cooperation with investment advisory firms to ensure that all requirements are met and that the process is optimally planned. A public company is subject to governmental and public scrutiny – any negative information, such as rumors about insider trading, can result in falling stock prices. Also, the time when going public is crucial. Even a prospering company can have a very low return in times of recession.

Up to 2023, the life insurance group AIA ranked first with an IPO volume amounting to around 159.08 billion Hong Kong dollars. Hong Kong had been a popular destination for mainland Chinese companies to raise funds.

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The initial public offering (IPO) of Puig Brands, listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange, was the largest public offering in Europe in 2024. The IPO of the company was worth over 2.6 billion euros. An initial public offering (IPO), also known as ‘going public’, is the company’s first stock sale to the public. The largest all-time IPO worldwide was worth more than 20 billion euros.

As of January 29, 2025, the FTSE index stood at 8,557.81 points - well above its average value of around 7,500 points in the past few years.On the 12th of March 2020, amid the escalating crisis surrounding the coronavirus and fears of a global recession, the FTSE 100 suffered the second largest one day crash in its history and the biggest since the 1987 market crash. On the 23rd of March, the FTSE index saw its lowest value this year to date at 4,993.89 but has since began a tentative recovery. With the continuation of the pandemic, the FTSE 100 index was making a tentative recovery between late March 2020 and early June 2020. Since then the FSTE 100 index had plateaued towards the end of July, before starting a tentative upward trend in November. FTSE 100 The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, otherwise known as the FTSE 100 Index is a share index of the 100 largest companies trading on the London Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalization. At the end of March 2024, the largest company trading on the LSE was Shell. The largest ever initial public offering (IPO) on the LSE was Glencore International plc. European stock exchanges While nearly every country in Europe has a stock exchange, only five are considered major, and have a market capital of over one trillion U.S dollars. European stock exchanges make up two of the top ten major stock markets in the world. Europe’s biggest stock exchange is the Euronext which combines seven markets based in Belgium, France, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal.

2021 was quite a year for initial public offers (IPOs) in the United States, which was largely influenced by the significant rise in the number of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) who went public. In 2021, there were 1,035 initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United States. In 2022 and 2023, however, the number of IPOs dropped to 181 and 154 respectively.

What does it mean to go public?

The management of a private company has a lot of control over its operation but raising funds from investors is more difficult. To access funds from regular investors, that is the general public, firms go public by offering stock shares at a certain price. As a result, these firms often have more capital to work with. An IPO can, and often does, raise billions of dollars for a firm. However, publicly traded companies also face increased regulation and disclosure requirements.

Staying private

Some firms delay going public for a longer time, in spite of their increasing value. If their valuation goes above one billion U.S. dollars, these firms are called unicorns and the highest valued unicorns are mostly based in the U.S. and China. Some firms, such as SpaceX, are still heavily investing in research and development projects, which shareholders often dislike due to low short-run dividends. At the moment, most unicorns are found in the technology sector, which is also the leading sector for IPOs in the United States. This indicates that investors consider this to be the industry most likely to see growth, and thus most worth investing in when companies go public.

India Retail Electronic Payment: Value data was reported at 23,181,829.042 INR mn in Oct 2019. This records an increase from the previous number of 22,012,660.162 INR mn for Sep 2019. India Retail Electronic Payment: Value data is updated monthly, averaging 3,326,320.000 INR mn from Apr 2004 (Median) to Oct 2019, with 187 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 29,481,301.495 INR mn in Mar 2019 and a record low of 71,152.100 INR mn in May 2004. India Retail Electronic Payment: Value data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Reserve Bank of India. The data is categorized under India Premium Database’s Monetary – Table IN.KAI038: Retail Electronic Clearing (Discontinued). The spike observed in February 2008 is due to high value of refunds in the Initial Public Offering (IPO) segment from ADAG Group - Reliance Power, which is one of the largest IPO.

A semiconductor foundry market is the core part of the global semiconductor industry that offers production services to semiconductor companies. As such, the market is characterized mostly by a few top players: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) of Taiwan, Samsung Electronics of South Korea, and GlobalFoundries hold larger parts of the market share. The market of semiconductor chips is growing rapidly with increasing demand for use in an increasingly wide range of applications, including consumer electronics, automotive, telecommunications, and industrial equipment.Drivers in this market include advances in semiconductor technologies, growth of 5G, IoT devices, and AI. Other drivers in this market include the ever-increasing requirement for miniaturization and improved performance in the chip. This market is further driven by geopolitical factors because every country has a keen interest in getting domestic supply of semiconductors. This market will grow further with next-generation semiconductor nodes to be introduced, which are 5nm and 3nm processes, to achieve an ever-increasing demand for high-performance silicon chips.Concentration Areas:The semiconductor foundry market is dominated by a few major players, with TSMC holding the largest market share.The industry is highly concentrated geographically, with Taiwan and South Korea accounting for a majority of global production.Characteristics of Innovation:Rapid technological advancements drive innovation in the semiconductor foundry market.The industry is characterized by high R&D investments and a focus on miniaturization and process improvements. Recent developments include: July 28, 2023: For the opening ceremony of its global research and development centre in Hsinchu, Taiwan, TSMC was the host. It brought together customers, industry and academic R&D partners, partners in the design ecosystem, and senior government officials to celebrate the company's newest hub for bringing next-generation semiconductor technology into reality., January 2023: Apple announced plans for designing their new Mac Book Air and iMac with their own Apple M3 processor built on a three-nanometer process. In line with these plans, by December of 2022, TSMC launched mass production of its three-nanometer chip process destined for future generations of Macs, iPhones as well as other Apple devices., Moreover, TSMC stated that beginning in four years' time, it will fabricate three-nanometer chips at the factory in Arizona where it presently supplies Apple; this factory is part of President Biden’s plan for growing domestic chip manufacturing., November 2022: Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd received regulatory approval for a $2.5bn IPO on the Shanghai exchange market. This intended IPO reflects the deepening confrontation between China and US chipmakers due to geopolitical tensions. Because of this, with construction starting in 2023 and the building set to produce 83 thousand wafers per month, Hua Hong plans to use the funds raised from the IPO to build a new fabrication plant or fab in Wuxi City on China’s eastern coast., For example, Intel made an initial declaration toward investing over $20bn for constructing two state-of-the-art chip-making factories in Ohio later in January 2022. Under the IDM 2.0 plan from Intel, this investment will boost production towards meeting the high demand for advanced semiconductors underpinning next cutting-edge innovations from the company.. Key drivers for this market are: Growing demand for advanced semiconductors in multiple end-user industries Technological advancements and miniaturization Government support and investment in the semiconductor industry Increasing geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions. Potential restraints include: High capital and R&D costs Volatility in demand and pricing Intellectual property concerns Geopolitical tensions and supply chain disruptions. Notable trends are: The growing adoption of advanced semiconductor nodes, such as 10/7/5 nm, is driving market growth. These nodes offer increased performance and energy efficiency, meeting the needs of emerging applications. Foundries are investing heavily in expanding their production capacity to meet the growing demand for semiconductors. New fabs are being built, and existing fabs are being upgraded with advanced technology.

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2020 and 2021 were a record year for SPAC IPO filings, even though they had been steadily growing in popularity over the last decade. In 2021, SPACs had raised capital in 613 IPOs in that year alone. A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is a company with no business operations which is set up for the sole purpose of raising capital through an initial public offering with the goal of buying an existing company. The U.S. ranked second globally in terms of traditional IPO numbers, with the highest number of traditional IPOs occurring in mainland China. In comparison, there were 31 SPAC IPOs in 2023, and 57 in 2024.. How have SPAC IPOs historically performed in the U.S.? From 2003 to 2019, the funds raised by SPAC IPOs remained somewhat consistent, with the value of funds never exceeding 11 billion U.S. dollars except in 2003 and 2019. SPAC IPOs raised the largest amount of funds between January and December 2021, with the value of funds raised surpassing 160 billion U.S. dollars. In the previous year, SPAC IPOs raised more funds than all preceding years combined. The U.S. vs Europe While SPAC IPOs in the U.S. have been slowly increasing over the past six years, numbers have remained significantly lower in Europe. Europe has still not seen annual SPAC IPO numbers exceed nine per year, while those in the U.S. have increased more each year, reaching a significant high-point in 2020 that is expected to be further surpassed by the end of 2021. During the first three months of 2021, less than five percent of SPAC IPOs completed globally came from Europe.

2023 saw a total of 23 initial public offerings (IPOs) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), compared to 45 in the previous year, with a total market capitalization on admission of 3.8 billion British pounds. While the largest admission in 2023 was by Amicorp FS (UK) plc, the all-time largest admission onto the LSE was by Glencore International plc in 2011. An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the first time that a company's stock is sold to the public in the organized capital market.

Not all IPOs result in long-term gains for the respective company; however, the average year-end gains for all companies that went public in the United States have been mostly positive each year over the past decade. In 2023, however, the average returns amounted to a negative 56 percent in the first year after their IPO.

This statistic shows the largest global stock exchanges globally as of October 2024, ranked by the value of electronic order book share trading. In that time, the NASDAQ Stock Market was the largest stock exchange worldwide, with the value of EOB shares traded amounting to 2.6 trillion U.S. dollars. Stock exchanges - additional information Stock exchanges are an important part of the free market economic system and are the most important component of the stock market. A stock exchange provides the setting in which stock brokers, sellers, buyers and traders can be brought together to take part in the sale of shares, bonds, derivatives and other securities. The core function of a stock exchange is to enable the fair and orderly trading, as well as the provision of price information of any securities being traded on that exchange. Originally the exchanges were physical places (in some world locations the goods are still traded over-the-counter) but with time, they took the shape of an electronic platform. In order that company shares may be bought, traded and sold on a stock exchange, the company is required to have undergone an initial public offering process (IPO) on that particular exchange. The initial public offering of Alibaba Group Holding, a Chinese company operating in the e-commerce sector, on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014, was the largest listing in the United States since 1996. The IPO of Alibaba Group Holding raised approximately 21.77 billion U.S. dollars.

Initial IPO returns in the United States fluctuated between 2005 and 2023. Throughout the period considered, 2020 was the best year for first-day gains, amounting to 23 percent. In 2023, the average first-day gain after an IPO in the U.S. was zero percent, as IPOs maintained their offering prices on their first day of trading.

In 2023, the total value of traditional IPOs in the United States was one of the lowest figures since 2000, amounting to 19 billion U.S. dollars. The gross proceeds for 2022, on the other hand, amounted to 7.8 billion U.S. dollars, the lowest figure ever recorded during this period. However, SPAC IPOs proceeds amounted to 13.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2022.