IPO

American  

abbreviation

1. initial public offering: a company's first stock offering to the public.

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IPO British  

abbreviation

1. independent publicly owned company

2. stock exchange initial public offering

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IPO Cultural  

1. Abbreviation for i nitial p ublic o ffering; the first issuance of shares in itself by a public company.

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Etymology

Origin of IPO

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

SpaceX’s upcoming IPO could be different—this is an Elon Musk company, after all.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026

The SpaceX IPO is the biggest sale of its type in history but it's just the first of a slew of mega-sales of shares in the companies at the frontier of the AI economy.

From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026

If both SpaceX and OpenAI list this year, 2026 will “almost certainly” set a new record for IPO proceeds, the research firm Renaissance Capital told MarketWatch.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 8, 2026

SpaceX, which absorbed Musk's xAI lab, could see shares begin trading as early as Friday, targeting a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion in what would be the largest IPO in history.

From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026

The other, he said, are American investment banks and financial services companies, which often need to prepare glossy pamphlets with graphs to illustrate the benefits of an IPO or a proposed merger.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman