SpaceX is poised to be the biggest IPO ever. Here are the top U.S. deals to date

Elon Musk’s reusable rocket maker filed its long-awaited IPO prospectus on Wednesday. The company didn’t say how much it plans to raise but is reportedly aiming to reel in around $75 billion. That’s more than triple the size of the biggest U.S. IPO to date, which was Alibaba‘s $22 billion offering in 2014.

The next largest U.S. IPOs were from Visa, which raised nearly $18 billion in 2008, Enel SpA‘s $16.5 billion deal in 1999, and Facebook‘s $16 billion 2012 debut.

Investors are counting on SpaceX to breathe life into an IPO market that’s seen muted activity since late 2021, as soaring inflation and rising interest rates pushed investors out of risk. The artificial intelligence boom that has followed lifted OpenAI and Anthropic to stratospheric valuations, but both companies remain private with ambitions to eventually go public, possibly this year. OpenAI could file confidentially as soon as this week.

Cerebras gave Wall Street a chance to get in on AI hardware with its Nasdaq listing last week, the biggest tech offering since Uber‘s IPO in 2019. But for companies like Databricks and Stripe, seemingly endless private funding opportunities have incentivized them to steer clear of the public market.

While SpaceX will be looking at numbers never before seen on Wall Street, there have been giant IPOs in the past, reaching into the double-digit billions. Here are the largest U.S. IPOs to date.

Alibaba

The Chinese tech and e-commerce giant raised $21.8 billion when it debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, the largest IPO in history at the time.

More than a decade after its IPO, Alibaba remains a dominant force in its home country through online retail and cloud computing. But the stock has lost well over half its value since peaking in October 2020, during the height of the Covid pandemic.

Alibaba is also among a growing crop of businesses downsizing with the help of AI. Last year, the company slashed about a third of its workforce as it sold off some retail operations. The company is investing in more semiconductor initiatives to support its AI aspirations.

Visa

Visa hit the public market with a bang in 2008 despite the looming financial crisis. The payments company raised $17.8 billion, and the stock jumped as much as 38% out of the gate. It was a major win for many banking giants strained by the housing collapse, which was bleeding into the rest of the economy.

Visa shares reached a closing high of $373.31 in June and are now trading at around $330.

Enel SpA

When it went public in November 1999, the Italian multinational utility raised nearly $16.5 billion and set the record for the largest IPO ever at the time.

Enel SpA began privatizing with its IPO, but the government of Italy still owns close to a quarter of the company. It’s now looking to expand its scope, with plans to invest tens of billions of dollars into growing renewables in the U.S. and Europe between 2026 and 2028. Shares are up close to 25% over the last year.

Facebook

More than a decade after its 2012 debut, Mark Zuckerberg’s company still owns the title of largest offering for a U.S. tech company in history, for a bit longer anyway. Now known as Meta, the company raised about $16 billion, instantly setting its market value at about $100 billion.

Facebook set the stage for a series of social media IPOs in the years that followed, including Twitter, Snap, Pinterest, and most recently Reddit. Twitter was taken private by Musk in 2022, before changing its name to X and then being acquired by xAI, which is now owned by SpaceX.

Over the years, Meta has situated itself as one of the most valuable tech companies by market cap, now valued at about $1.5 trillion.

In 2021, Facebook rebranded to Meta as it set its sights on virtual reality. Recently, the company has ramped up bets on AI, investing over $14 billon in Scale AI last year and bringing its CEO, Alexandr Wang, in-house.

General Motors

In the automaker’s return to the public market in November 2010, General Motors raised $15.8 billion. About a year earlier, the company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to its swelling debt load, and overhauled its business as the government delivered a massive bailout.

In 2014, the company installed Mary Barra as CEO, the first time a female held the top position at one of the major U.S. automakers. It’s been a rocky road, with the stock on several occasions falling below its IPO price as the company has grappled with slowing demand and failed electric vehicle initiatives.

Still, the shares have rallied 52% over the past year.

Deutsche Telekom

European telecom giant Deutsche Telekom raised more than $13 billion when it debuted on the NYSE in November 1996. It was one of the most famous examples of state-owned privatizations, alongside Spain’s Telefónica and British Airways.

The company, which owns a majority stake in U.S. wireless provider T-Mobile, is currently teaming up with Elon Musk and SpaceX’s Starlink on satellite mobile services in 10 European countries, including Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary and Greece.

Rivian

Rivian’s IPO in late 2021 raised $11.9 billion and its initial pop made the EV maker worth more than Ford or GM at the time.

But the shares have plummeted more than 90% since their high, due in part to rising competition overseas and slowing demand for EV.

Rivian recently walked back its 2027 profitability goal as it ramps up spending on some of its autonomous tech and new vehicles. In March, Uber invested $1.25 billion in Rivian for up to 50,000 robotaxis over the next five years.

AT&T Wireless

AT&T‘s spinoff of its wireless business raked in $10.6 billion in its April 2000 offering. But the deal, led by Goldman Sachs, was only the beginning of a multistep journey.

In 2004, Cingular, a joint venture between SBC Communications and BellSouth, bought AT&T Wireless. Then, SBC acquired the original AT&T and adopted its name. After the new entity bought BellSouth in 2007, AT&T Wireless was rebranded to AT&T Mobility, now a major subsidiary of AT&T, which is the third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., behind Verizon and T-Mobile.

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