An initial public offering, IPO, or stock market launch is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. IPOs are often issued by smaller companies in search of the capital necessary to expand their operation but are also often performed by larger, privately owned companies looking to become publicly traded on stock exchanges. China has recently emerged as a leading IPO market but the United States remains close behind in terms of IPO volume. The largest IPO in the U.S. so far was that of Alibaba Group Holding in 2014, in which 21.77 billion U.S. dollars was raised.
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