79 vs 15! Tech stock feast restarts NASDAQ's number of traditional IPOs in the first half of the year and crushed the NYSE

The Zhitong Finance App learned that in the first half of 2025, NASDAQ easily beat the New York Stock Exchange in terms of the number of stock listings, thanks to major IPOs of well-known companies such as CoreWeave and ChIME (CHYM.US), as well as a surge in capital raised through special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs).

According to Dealogic data, Nasdaq IPOs, which include Blank Check, raised around $21.3 billion in the first half of the year, while the New York Stock Exchange (ICE. US)'s listing raised $8.7 billion.

Excluding SPAC trading volume, the NASDAQ raised about US$9 billion in 79 traditional IPOs, while the NYSE raised about US$7.8 billion in 15 IPOs. In the same period last year, NASDAQ raised about 6.1 billion US dollars in IPOs, while NYSE IPOs raised 11.5 billion US dollars.

The number of stock listings declined sharply in April due to the market sell-off caused by the turbulent US trade policy, but Wall Street has since recovered, and companies have begun to scramble again to seek listing.

Nasdaq President Nelson Griggs told Reuters: “We originally thought this could be a good year — but the market fluctuated sharply at the beginning of the year, so all companies had to suspend their plans. Obviously, with the market picking up after a strong rebound in May, companies have restarted related discussions. If the next batch of listed companies perform well, I think the fall market will be a real boom.”

The Nasdaq Composite Index and the S&P 500 both hit record closing highs on Monday, their best quarterly performance in more than a year. With its listing performance in the first half of the year, Nasdaq remained at the top of the rankings.

According to Dealogic data, the exchange operator has been ahead of the NYSE in the IPO rankings for most of the past ten years (including the last six years).

The battle for market share between these two top US exchanges and the improvement in stock market listing prospects all occurred after a dry period of more than two years in the capital market. Several well-known companies, such as medical supplies giant MedLine and design software maker Figma, are preparing to launch IPOs later this year.

LNG exporter Venture Global (VG. US) $1.75 billion stock offering, CoreWeave's $1.5 billion fundraising, and cybersecurity company SailPoint (SAIL. US) issued $1.38 billion, making it the largest US IPO in the first half of the year.

Michael Harris, head of global capital markets at the NYSE, said: “The largest IPO so far this year was listed on the NYSE. We expect distribution activity to continue to be active for the rest of the year.”

High profile turntable

Both exchanges benefit from large companies moving from one exchange to another. This year, Nasdaq received products including Kleenex tissue manufacturer Kimberly (KMB. US) and a boost from high-profile transfer board companies including Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters.

Nasdaq said that 10 companies with a total market capitalization of 271.4 billion US dollars have transferred from the NYSE this year. This is the best first half of the year since the exchange operator began tracking this data in 2006.

The NYSE was supported by financial services companies Virtu and CSW Industrials (CSW. US) and construction products distributor QXO (QXO. US) and five other companies' turnover in the first half of the year was boosted.

Some companies that switched from the NYSE to NASDAQ this year said that the attractiveness of the NASDAQ 100 Index (.NDX) was a key factor in deciding the transition. The index includes the 100 most valuable non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ, including Nvidia (NVDA. US) and Apple (AAPL. US) and other companies.

The Nasdaq 100 is up nearly 8% this year, while the S&P 500 is up about 5.5% during the year.

Juan Perez, vice president of investor relations at Linde, a chemical company transferred to NASDAQ in 2023, said: “We soon realised that the NASDAQ has a very attractive place — if you are listed on the NASDAQ and reach the market cap threshold, you can become a component of the NASDAQ 100 Index, which is a great index.”

Experts said that competition between NASDAQ and NYSE has played an important role in making the US capital market more attractive to investors compared to markets such as Hong Kong and London that currently have only one listing location.