Alibaba Group’s 2014 IPO became the largest initial public offering in history at that time and helped establish it as a market-cap giant.
Alibaba listed shares on the New York Stock Exchange on September 19, 2014. The offering initially raised about $21.8 billion, and the underwriters later exercised an overallotment option, bringing the total to about $25 billion. It was widely described as the largest IPO ever at the time.
Alibaba operates major commerce platforms including Taobao and Tmall, along with businesses in cloud computing, logistics, digital media, and local services. Its scale reflects China’s enormous internet market and the network effects created by connecting buyers, sellers, payments, and advertising.
The company was founded in Hangzhou in 1999 by Jack Ma and other co-founders. It is not the same business as Amazon: Alibaba primarily operates platforms that connect merchants and consumers, while Amazon also sells inventory directly. Alibaba’s market capitalization changes with its share price and share count.