Big money carried the quarter
The AI trade kept flexing. SK Hynix's $26.5 billion US listing helped push third quarter issuance on US exchanges to $36.1 billion, measured for the three months through Sept. 30 and excluding blank-checks and other investment vehicles. Most of that haul came from the South Korean memory maker's American depositary receipts, Bloomberg's tally shows.
It was the second-heaviest quarter for IPO proceeds since 2021, behind only the April-to-June stretch, when SpaceX and others helped drive a $117 billion wave. Bloomberg's dataset is as of Sept. 30 and screens out blank-check firms, closed-end funds, REITs and similar vehicles.
Also notable: listings for SK Hynix, Bending Spoons SpA, Csquare Inc. and Jersey Mike's Subs Inc. each topped the $1 billion mark in the third quarter.
Caution creeps in, even at record highs
Not everyone hit the gas. In September, Holtec Nuclear Corp., Bamboo Insurance Services Inc. and Oura Inc. hit pause on sizeable IPOs, blaming market conditions at a time when major indexes were setting new highs.
Institutional demand has been uneven - particularly from long-only investors - according to Renos Savvides, who leads equity capital markets at Neuberger Berman Group. "Whenever you have a blip in the IPO market like the one we've seen recently, you need a watertight deal or something that comes at an attractive valuation so people feel good about how it will work out," Savvides said.
Even when big deals dominate the headlines, steady contributions grow wealth over time, download the free Always Be Buying E-Book
What worked, what didn't
Backing the giants paid. Since listing, SpaceX is up 12% and SK Hynix is up 24%, which has pulled this year's US IPO cohort to an 8.8% weighted average gain, according to Bloomberg's figures.
Smaller names have lagged. With investors picking their AI winners and rising rates pressuring growth stocks, deals that did not clear the $10 billion mark are down 4% on a weighted average basis this year. Within the quarter's billion-plus club, Csquare and Jersey Mike's are currently at least 25% below their IPO prices.
The next swing factor
Year to date, IPOs have raised $162.6 billion in the US. The market's focal point now is Anthropic PBC, whose potential listing could match SpaceX or go bigger. A deal of that size would push 2024's tally beyond the $195.2 billion peak set in 2021. Translation for your wallet: splashy AI-fueled offerings can lift the headline numbers, but plenty of smaller deals are still treading water.
Download the free Always Be Buying E-Book and start putting your money to work today
