Saudi Aramco’s 2019 stock-market debut was the world’s largest initial public offering.
Saudi Aramco raised about $25.6 billion in its December 2019 IPO by selling shares on the Saudi Stock Exchange, known as Tadawul. The company later exercised an over-allotment option, bringing the total raised to about $29.4 billion, a record for an initial public offering.
The IPO gave public investors a stake in Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant. Aramco is one of the world’s largest integrated energy companies, with operations spanning oil and gas production, refining, chemicals, and distribution. Its listing was a major part of Saudi Arabia’s economic-diversification plans.
The record is about money raised in an IPO, not simply the company’s market capitalization. Saudi Aramco was briefly valued above $2 trillion after trading began, but that is a separate measurement. Alibaba’s 2014 New York listing had previously held the IPO fundraising record before Aramco surpassed it.