Saudi Aramco conducted the world’s largest initial public offering in 2019, helping it rank among the world’s most valuable companies by market capitalization.
The Saudi Arabian Oil Company, commonly called Saudi Aramco, listed shares on the Saudi Stock Exchange, or Tadawul, in December 2019. The offering raised about $25.6 billion at first, and an additional share sale later lifted the total to roughly $29.4 billion.
Aramco’s listing valued the company at approximately $1.7 trillion. That figure reflected the enormous scale of Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves, production infrastructure, refining operations, and global energy business. The IPO formed part of Saudi Vision 2030, an economic strategy intended to diversify the kingdom beyond oil.
The 2019 offering surpassed Alibaba’s 2014 listing as the largest IPO ever. “Largest IPO” refers to money raised in the offering, while “largest market capitalization” refers to the total value of all outstanding shares, so the two measurements should not be confused.