Arm’s successful debut may signal an end to the IPO drought

Pop! FewIPO events in financial markets this year were as hotly anticipated as the listing on September 14th of Arm, a British chipmaker whose designs are found in nearly every smartphone. The debut, on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange, was a resounding success. The share price climbed by 25% on the first day of trading, giving the firm a market value of $65bn. That is $34bn more than SoftBank, a Japanese investment group, paid for the firm in 2016, $25bn more than Nvidia, an American chipmaker, offered to pay in 2020, $1bn more than the valuation at which SoftBank shuffled a 25% stake from its investment fund to its main operation in August, and 125 times Arm’s profit last year.Arm’s initial public offering () is America’s biggest since Rivian, a startup that makes electric trucks, raised $14bn in November 2021. New listings dried up shortly thereafter. Many have been to break the spell. Its successful opening day will of Birkenstock, a German sandal-maker which on September 12th announced plans to list its shares in America, and Instacart, a grocery-delivery firm looking to raise $600m this month.