Some companies didn’t just ring the bell; they set off fireworks when they went for their initial public offering (IPO).
An IPO is an event when a private company sells its shares to the public for the first time. It marks the transition of a privately owned company to public ownership. But this decision isn’t made on a whim; it depends on business analytics and future growth plans. Mergers and acquisitions software supplies the data that drives these decisions.
While many companies go public every year, few do it so well in the IPO event that their opening bell echoes across the world.
In this article, we’ll discuss the largest IPOs in history, giving you a complete context of not just the numbers but also the impact.
Ranking IPOs based on the amount raised might not be the best way to look at it, considering the value difference based on a timeline. Here’s an overview of the largest IPOs listed chronologically based on the IPO’s date (year) to offer better historical insight:
| Year | Company | Country | Industry/sector | Amount raised (US$B) |
| 1996 | Deutsche Telekom AG | Germany | Telecommunications | 13.7 |
| 1998 | NTT DoCoMo | Japan | Telecommunications | 18 |
| 1999 | Enel SpA | Italy | Utilities | 16.4 |
| 2008 | Visa Inc. | USA | Financial services | 17.4 |
| 2010 | AIA Group | Hong Kong/China | Insurance | 17.8 |
| 2010 | General Motors | USA | Automotive | 15.8 |
| 2012 | Meta Platforms (Facebook) | USA | Technology | 16 |
| 2014 | Alibaba Group | China/USA | E-commerce/tech | 25 |
| 2018 | SoftBank Corp. | Japan | Telecom/tech | 21.3 |
| 2019 | Saudi Aramco | Saudi Arabia | Energy (oil & gas) | 29.4 |
| 2020 | Door Dash | USA | Technology and logistics | 3.37 |
| 2021 | Kuaishou | China/UK | Shot-video/social media | 5.4 |
| 2023 | Arm Holdings | UK/USA | Semiconductors (chip IP) | 4.87 |
| 2024 | Hyundai Motor India | India | Automotive | 3.3 |
1996: Deutsche Telekom AG raised $13.7 billion
In late 1996, Deutsche Telekom (DT), the state-owned German telecommunications company, launched its initial public offering, raising approximately $13.7 billion. This IPO surpassed the previous record of $12+ billion set by British Petroleum in 1987.
DT used the proceeds to expand internationally and to defend its market share in the industry.
NTT DoCoMo’s October 1998 IPO became the largest worldwide at that moment, raising roughly $18.0 billion. DoCoMo was the mobile communications arm of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT).
DoCoMo’s debut at $18 billion was the biggest ever in dollar terms and created Japan’s third-largest listed company.
Enel, Italy’s state-owned electricity utility, went public on Nov 1, 1999. Its IPO raised about $16.4 billion, making it Europe’s largest at the time.
Following the IPO, Enel assumed control of electricity distribution in 31 countries, serving millions of customers across Europe and Asia. Initially, investors were very excited, but their interest waned as the process progressed.
Still, the IPO was successful. It transformed Enel into a private company and raised funds to improve its infrastructure.
Visa, the global payments network, sold 406 million shares at $44 each, raising approximately $17.3 billion. This occurred as the global financial crisis was brewing. Visa’s offering allowed shareholders to cash out some equity and strengthened the company’s balance sheet.
Visa’s business model is distinct. It does not lend directly to consumers; it processes payments, making it less vulnerable to defaults. This stability attracts investors during a volatile period.
In October 2010, AIA Group, a pan-Asian life insurer, launched an IPO in Hong Kong, raising nearly $17.8 billion. Formerly the Asian arm of U.S. insurer AIG, AIA’s public debut came after the U.S. government forced AIG to sell assets following the financial crisis. The listing made AIA the largest independent publicly traded life insurer in Asia.
The proceeds were used to support AIA’s growth across 18 Asian markets.
General Motors’ return to the stock market in November 2010 was the largest U.S. IPO of the year. The deal raised about $15.8 billion and $4.35 billion in preferred shares. This followed the U.S. government bailout of GM during its 2009 bankruptcy, after which GM restructured and listed new common shares.
The IPO allowed the Treasury to recover much of its $50 billion investment. The stock’s performance was mixed post-IPO. In the ensuing years, GM’s share was volatile despite having a strong balance sheet. However, it marked a symbolic comeback at the time for a Detroit icon.
On May 17, 2012, Facebook (now Meta Platforms) executed one of the most famous tech IPOs. It raised just over $16.0 billion, valuing the company at $104 billion on its debut day. The company offered 421,233,615 shares for $38 per share.
Facebook’s IPO had a rough start, but it bounced back and grew significantly over the years, hitting a record all-time high stock closing price of 736.01 on February 14, 2025.
Alibaba’s September 2014 IPO initially raised $21.8 billion, and with the underwriters’ overallotment, the total amount reached approximately $25.0 billion, briefly making it the world’s largest IPO ever.
Alibaba chose the NYSE for its initial public offering. It suggested that the company’s global ambitions were evident, despite being a Chinese firm.
In December 2018, SoftBank Group Corp spun off its Japanese telecom unit (also called SoftBank) in a massive IPO. The deal raised roughly $21.3 billion. This was the largest IPO in Japan’s history.
The listing was part of SoftBank’s strategy to pay down debt and focus its parent company on global tech investments. SoftBank’s stock fell about 14.5% on its first day, reflecting investor caution about market conditions. Still, the IPO marked a landmark event in Japanese markets.
Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest producer of oil, based in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. They began drilling for oil in 1938.
During the IPO, the company sold approximately 3 billion shares to raise $25.6 billion, which represented 1.5% of the company’s total value. The company increased the size of its IPO to $29.4 billion by exercising a greenshoe option. The greenshoe option provides stability to the stock price in the event of rising demand.
Based on Aramco’s report, the company’s net income in Q1 2025 is around $26 billion, which is somewhat similar to the total amount raised back in 2019. The Q1 2025 earnings are reportedly less than the $27.2 billion net income in 2024.
Before going public, Saudi Aramco drew investors' attention in 2016 when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud expressed his plans to list 5% of the company at a valuation of $2 trillion.
As the COVID-19 pandemic transformed daily life in 2020, food delivery emerged as an essential service, and DoorDash rode that wave straight to Wall Street.
The company priced its IPO at $102 per share but opened at $182, giving it a fully diluted valuation of nearly $71.2 billion, more than triple what it was worth just a year earlier. It raised $3.37 billion.
DoorDash’s public debut reflected the investor appetite for pandemic-resilient tech businesses. It had captured more than 50% of the U.S. food delivery market and showed no signs of slowing down.
Kuaishou’s IPO represented the arrival of a new breed of social media empires emerging from China. Often dubbed “TikTok’s quieter cousin,” Kuaishou was a video-sharing app that had aggregated over 300 million daily active users, primarily from China’s smaller cities.
When it was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in early 2021, the IPO raised $5.4 billion. It was also the biggest IPO in Hong Kong since 2019. Shares opened nearly 200% above the IPO price, valuing the company at over $160 billion at one point.
Arm Holdings’ return to the public markets in 2023 was more than a listing; it was a test for investor confidence in chip technology. Once a publicly traded UK company, Arm had been taken private by SoftBank in 2016. Seven years later, its re-IPO on Nasdaq was the most significant U.S. tech IPO in two years.
Arm priced its shares at $51, raising $4.87 billion and valuing the company at $54.5 billion. The listing was seen as a significant win for SoftBank, which retained a 90% stake.
Arm doesn’t manufacture chips. Instead, it designs chip architectures used in 99% of smartphones globally, as well as in data centers and IoT devices. Its neutrality across chipmakers makes it critical infrastructure for the global tech industry.
Hyundai Motor India’s IPO raised approximately ₹27870 crore (about $3.3 billion), moving beyond the records set by the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) IPO, in which they raised close to $2.7 billion.
Hyundai is in a dominant position in India’s car market. It ranks second in passenger vehicle sales and has a strong portfolio of both combustion and electric vehicles. Hyundai was among the first foreign automakers to bet on India in the 1990s, and by 2024, it had become a manufacturing and export giant. Its success encouraged global auto giants to consider India not just as a consumer base but as a production hub for the world.
Below are some of the significant IPOs that made it to the global headlines after 2019.
| Company | IPO date | Exchange | Sector | Amount raised |
| Airbnb | Dec 10, 2020 | Nasdaq | Travel/Tech platform | $3.5 billion |
| Snowflake (USA) | Sep 16, 2020 | NYSE | Cloud data analytics | $3.36 billion |
| Unity Software (USA) | Sep 18, 2020 | NYSE | Game development software | $1.3 billion |
| XPeng (China/USA) | Aug 27, 2020 | NYSE | Electric vehicles | $1.5 billion |
| Li Auto (China/USA) | Jul 30, 2020 | Nasdaq | Electric vehicles | $1.1 billion |
| Coupang (South Korea/USA) | Mar 11, 2021 | NYSE | E-commerce | $4.6 billion |
| Affirm (USA) | Jan 13, 2021 | Nasdaq | Fintech (BNPL) | $1.2 billion |
| Oatly (USA) | May 19, 2021 | Nasdaq | Plant-based foods | $1.4 billion |
| Zomato (India) | Jul 23, 2021 | BSE/NSE (India) | Food delivery | $1.3 billion |
| Paytm (India) | Nov 8, 2021 | NSE/BSE (India) | Fintech (payments) | $2.5 billion |
| Nubank (Brazil) | Dec 9, 2021 | NYSE | Fintech (digital bank) | $2.6 billion |
| LIC (India) | May 4, 2022 | NSE/BSE (India) | Insurance/Finance | $2.7 billion |
| Birkenstock (Germany/USA) | Oct 10, 2023 | NYSE | Consumer footwear | $1.48 billion |
| Reddit (USA) | Mar 20, 2024 | Nasdaq | Social media | $0.75 billion |
| Hyundai Motor India (India) | Oct 15, 2024 | NSE/BSE (India) | Automotive | $3.3 billion |
Source: Reuters
Several companies appear to be on track for an IPO in the foreseeable future, with 2025 being a likely target. Here’s an overview:
| Company | Estimated valuation | Industry | Description |
| Stripe | $91.5 billion | Fintech | Leading payments firm handling $1 trillion+ annual volume. |
| Databricks | $62 billion | Technology | AI-focused data analytics firm with strong growth. |
| Chime | $11.37 billion | Fintech | Fee-free neo-bank serving 38M customers in the U.S. |
| Klarna | $15 billion | Fintech | Top buy-now-pay-later firm aiming for U.S. listing. |
| Discord | $15 billion | Technology | Popular communication app, 200M active global users. |
Disclaimer: These are predictions based on information from various sources. This doesn’t constitute G2’s prediction or forecast on upcoming IPOs.
Despite their size, these IPOs share common themes, i.e., raising funds for expansion and growth. After 2019, there hasn’t been an IPO that has raised funds as much as Aramco. However, several companies have raised decent capital between 2020 and 2025.
If you’re on a similar pathway that’s guiding you toward an IPO event, this article gives you a ballpark in terms of the capital to raise. However, it’s not something that depends a lot on external signals. Your company's current financial and growth strategies help decide on how much capital you need to raise to fuel growth.
M&A software provides a comprehensive overview, making the decision-making process easier for you.
Learn more about how businesses are using AI in M&A for efficiency.
Sagar Joshi is a former content marketing specialist at G2 in India. He is an engineer with a keen interest in data analytics and cybersecurity. He writes about topics related to them. You can find him reading books, learning a new language, or playing pool in his free time.
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