Alibaba Group held the record for the world’s largest initial public offering before Saudi Aramco’s 2019 offering.
Alibaba raised about $25 billion in its New York Stock Exchange IPO on September 19, 2014. The offering sold shares at $68 each and gave the Chinese e-commerce group a major public-market valuation.
The company operates online marketplaces including Taobao and Tmall, as well as businesses in cloud computing, logistics, digital media, and other services. Its listing used the symbol BABA and became one of the most closely watched technology offerings of the decade.
Saudi Aramco later surpassed Alibaba’s fundraising total in December 2019. The two records are sometimes mixed up because both companies were enormous businesses before listing, but Alibaba’s offering was the record-holder for several years.