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

Musk is raising money in an IPO partly to finance space-based AI computing he hopes will become cheaper than terrestrial data centers in only a few years.

From Barron's • Apr. 21, 2026

Starlink is an incredible franchise, but an IPO valuation of up to $2 trillion will depend on Elon Musk convincing the analysts that AI data centers in space will be a thing.

From Barron's • Apr. 21, 2026

SpaceX aims to raise around $75 billion in its IPO and ended 2025 with $24.7 billion in cash on hand, Reuters has reported, citing excerpts of the company’s confidential registration filing.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 21, 2026

That would make the Jersey Mike’s IPO bigger than other recent restaurant IPOs.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 20, 2026

It is estimated that a person who invested $5,000 in Netflix at its 2002 IPO would have about $30,000 by January 2010, about $200,000 by January 2015, and about $1.4 million by January 2020.

From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly