Saudi Aramco held the largest initial public offering in history when it listed shares in 2019.
Saudi Aramco sold shares on the Saudi Exchange in December 2019, raising about $25.6 billion. The company later exercised an over-allotment option, bringing the total reported proceeds to approximately $29.4 billion. The offering valued the oil producer at about $1.7 trillion at its debut.
An initial public offering, or IPO, is the first sale of a company’s shares to public investors on a stock exchange. Saudi Aramco was already a vast, state-controlled oil producer before the offering; the IPO made only a small portion of its equity available to the public.
The record is often confused with the largest company by market capitalization. An IPO measures money raised from newly or newly offered shares, while market capitalization measures the value of all publicly traded equity.