Strong sector demand and healthier risk appetite are drawing big issuers back to market, setting the stage for one of the most active IPO pipelines in years.
- Blockbuster listings across AI, crypto, and design software sectors ignited investor enthusiasm.
- Early standouts like Circle, Figma, and CoreWeave delivered dramatic opening-day moves.
- Buzz builds around potential mega-filings from OpenAI, Anthropic, Canva, and Databricks.
The U.S. initial public offering (IPO) market has heated up again, with the number of offerings through the third quarter already matching the full-year total for 2024. IPO proceeds during the first nine months of the year have also nearly reached last year’s full-year levels.
This revival is being driven by a resurgent stock market that has largely brushed off economic, monetary policy, and geopolitical uncertainties. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the broader S&P 500 Index, is up nearly 18% this year, following a 24.5% gain in 2024.
IPO Reboot On?
According to E&Y, IPO deals for the first nine months of the year totaled 176, the same as in 2024, and deal proceeds were $32.8 billion, compared with $33 billion in 2024. The IPO market has been on a steady recovery since 2022’s dismal showing, when the market had to contend with a tougher comparison due to the post-COVID-19 deal surge and softer macroeconomic conditions.
Source: EY
According to EY, the telecom, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sector accounted for a majority of the total, both in terms of the deal count and size. The artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto boom paved the way for strong offerings from these industries.
Here’s a look at some of the high-profile IPOs this year:
| IPO Date | Offering Size (No of shares) | Offering Size (in dollars) | Offer Price | 1-Day Return | Return Since IPO | 1-Year Return Potential* | |
| Smithfield Foods | Jan. 29 | 26.1M | $522M | $20 | -5.6% | +16.8% | +33.1% |
| Sailpoint | Feb. 13 | 60M | $1.38B | $23 | -4.4% | -9.8% | +35.8% |
| CoreWeave | March 28 | 37.5M | $23B | $40 | 0% | +114% | +55.3% |
| Circle Internet | June 5 | 34M | $1.05B | $31 | +169% | +5.1% | +65.4% |
| Chime Financial | June 12 | 32M | $864M | $27 | +37.4% | -36% | +32.2% |
| Figma | July 31 | 36.94M | $1.2B | $33 | +250% | -66.5% | +68.6% |
*based on Koyfin-compiled consensus<
Source: Koyfin<
Can IPO Momentum Continue?
With the government shutdown ending and the market expected to maintain its upward trajectory, buoyed by hopes of a rate cut, IPO deal flow is anticipated to remain strong. Sam Altman’s OpenAI, which has transitioned from a non-profit to a hybrid structure, Amazon-backed Anthropic, the maker of the Claude large-language model (LLM), design software maker Canva, and potentially even Databricks, a data analytics company, could be biding their time to make their public debuts.
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