By Anirban Sen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Nasdaq handily beat the New York Stock Exchange in stock market listings during the first half of 2025, buoyed by blockbuster initial public offerings of big names like CoreWeave and Chime and a jump in proceeds raised via special purpose acquisition companies.
IPOs at Nasdaq, including those of blank-check acquisition companies, raised about $21.3 billion during the first half, compared with $8.7 billion for flotations at the NYSE, according to data from Dealogic.
Excluding SPAC volumes, traditional IPOs on the Nasdaq raised roughly $9 billion from 79 deals, while 15 IPOs on NYSE raised about $7.8 billion. Last year during the same period, Nasdaq IPOs had raised about $6.1 billion, while shares worth $11.5 billion were sold from IPOs on NYSE.
Stock market launches dropped off sharply during the April market selloff that was driven by erratic U.S. trade policy, but Wall Street has since recovered and companies are starting to rush back to seek listings.
“We felt this year had an opportunity to be good – and then we had enormous volatility to start the year, so companies across the board had to go pencils down,” Nasdaq President Nelson Griggs told Reuters.
“Clearly now, with the market rebound we’ve had after a very strong May, companies are back having those discussions. If the next round (of companies) does well, I think you’re going to really see some excitement for the fall,” Griggs added.
The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 reached record closing highs on Monday, capping their best quarter in more than a year.
With its first-half listings performance, Nasdaq maintained its stranglehold at the top of the rankings. The exchange operator has led the IPO rankings ahead of NYSE during the better part of the past decade, including the last six years, according to Dealogic.
The market share battle between the two top U.S. exchanges and the improving outlook for stock market listings follows an arid spell for capital markets that lasted for more than two years.
Several big names including medical supply giant Medline and design software maker Figma are gearing up for IPOs later this year.
Liquefied natural gas exporter Venture Global’s $1.75 billion share sale, CoreWeave’s $1.5 billion raise, and cybersecurity firm SailPoint’s $1.38 billion offering ranked as the biggest U.S. IPOs during the first half.
“The largest IPO YTD is listed on the NYSE. We anticipate that issuance for the remainder of the year will continue to be active,” NYSE Global Head of Capital Markets Michael Harris said.
HIGH-PROFILE SWITCHES
Both exchanges have been beneficiaries of large corporations transferring listings from one venue to the other.
This year, Nasdaq has received a boost from high-profile switches including those of Kleenex tissue maker Kimberly-Clark and content and technology company Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News.
Nasdaq said 10 companies with a combined market value of $271.4 billion have switched from the NYSE this year, the best first-half performance for the exchange operator since it started tracking the data from 2006.
NYSE was buoyed by transfers from five companies including financial services firm Virtu, CSW Industrials, and building products distributor QXO in the first half.
Some companies that transferred from NYSE to Nasdaq this year cited the attractiveness of the Nasdaq-100 index – which includes 100 of the most valuable non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq including the likes of Nvidia and Apple – as being a key driver for the decision to switch.
The Nasdaq 100 has risen nearly 8% this year, compared to the S&P 500, which has climbed about 5.5% year-to-date.
“We realized very quickly that Nasdaq had something that was very compelling – if you are in the Nasdaq and you meet the threshold for the market cap, you can be part of the Nasdaq-100, a great index to be a member of,” said Juan Pelaez, vice-president of investor relations at chemicals company Linde, which switched to Nasdaq in 2023.
The rivalry between Nasdaq and NYSE has played a big role in making U.S. capital markets more attractive for investors, compared to other markets like Hong Kong and London, which currently have only one venue for flotations, according to experts.
(Reporting by Anirban Sen in New York; Editing by Alden Bentley and Jamie Freed)
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