IPOs triple in the first half of the year to $178 billion

The value of IPOs worldwide soared in the first half of the year to $178 billion across 524 deals, driven by the $75 billion raised by SpaceX’s listing in June. In the same period last year, funds raised stood at $58.2 billion across 489 deals. Analysis of the “Global IPO Watch H1 2026” report produced by PwC also highlights that 77 per cent of the total amount raised – equivalent to $137.5 billion across 203 listings – representing a 404 per cent increase on last year’s $27.3 billion, was raised in the Americas. This is the region’s best performance since 2021. Within the continent, the US market alone accounted for 98% of regional activity, raising $135.3 billion (+396% on 2025). And even when adjusting the figure for the SpaceX effect, the United States still recorded IPO proceeds of $60.3 billion. Performance was more subdued in other regions, with Asia-Pacific remaining the world’s most active region in terms of the number of transactions, with 249 IPOs raising $29.6 billion (up 38 per cent on 2025). Activity was particularly buoyant in mainland China and Hong Kong, where combined proceeds surged by 148 per cent to $20.8 billion. The EMEA region, by contrast, recorded more modest growth, with $10.9 billion raised from 72 IPOs (+15%), driven mainly by Europe (+76%), whilst the Middle East saw a slowdown.

In sector terms, the Industrials sector enjoyed a particularly strong period, with 89 IPOs raising $22.5 billion (excluding SpaceX, which formally belongs to this sector), up 246 per cent from the $6.5 billion raised in H1 2025. The sector was driven by a cluster of major listings in the United States across the energy, defence and aerospace sectors, including Innio, Madison Air Solutions, Arxis (1.1 billion) and the nuclear company X-Energy (1 billion).

The Financials sector, on the other hand, recorded the highest number of transactions overall, 154 IPOs worth $27.1 billion (+35% on 2025), but its share of global proceeds almost halved, from 31.2% to 15.2%, partly due to dilution caused by growth in other sectors. Of note is the strong recovery in SPACs: 123 transactions globally, compared with 68 in the first half of 2025, worth $20.5 billion in the United States alone, accounting for 75.6% of the sector’s proceeds. This figure is still some way off the peak of 362 SPACs recorded in the first half of 2021, but it nevertheless signals a resurgence of interest in this investment vehicle.

The Information Technology sector, whilst benefiting from the enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and advanced computing, has slipped to fourth place amongst the sectors, having raised $20.8 billion (11.6 per cent of the global total), largely thanks to Cerebras Systems and Quantinuum, alongside Chinese semiconductor firms such as SJ Semiconductor (0.7 billion).

The world’s top ten IPOs by proceeds raised in the first half of the year are worth a total of $99.3 billion. In addition to SpaceX, the ranking includes Cerebras Systems (Nasdaq, artificial intelligence chips), which raised $5.6 billion on a total market capitalisation of $66.9 billion; CSG (Euronext Amsterdam, Industrials), which raised $3.9 billion; China Resources New Energy Holdings (Shenzhen, Utilities), with $3.1 billion; Innio (Nasdaq, Industrials), with $2.4 billion; Madison Air Solutions (NYSE, Industrials) with $2.2 billion; Fervo Energy (Nasdaq, Utilities) with $1.9 billion; Blackstone Digital Infrastructure (NYSE, Real Estate) with $1.8 billion; Bending Spoons (Nasdaq, Information Technology, the only Italian company in the top 10) with $1.7 billion; and Quantinuum (Nasdaq, quantum computing) with $1.7 billion raised.