Nasdaq Dominates IPO Race in 2026, Leaving NYSE in the Dust

The rivalry between the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq has become lopsided in 2026 — and it isn't close. Nasdaq has captured 59 traditional IPOs raising nearly $120 billion this year, versus NYSE's 32 deals worth just $20 billion. The gap is the widest on record by IPO volume, and the last time NYSE won a listing over Nasdaq that raised at least $5 billion was Uber's debut back in 2019.

The single biggest factor is SpaceX, whose $86 billion IPO — the largest in history — landed on Nasdaq. The exchange could pile on another $100 billion or so if AI giant Anthropic, which is planning an IPO next month, officially selects Nasdaq as well. NYSE officials are privately fuming over a rule change Nasdaq quietly engineered ahead of SpaceX's listing: large newly public companies can now enter the widely tracked Nasdaq-100 index just 15 trading days after listing, instead of waiting up to a year. That fast-track mechanism delivers an immediate stock boost and a captive base of ETF-driven shareholders — a structural advantage NYSE simply can't match. NYSE only launched its own NYSE 100 index last year, four decades after the Nasdaq-100, and the index has minimal following among investors.

NYSE President Lynn Martin, in her role since 2022, is fighting back with personnel changes — a new head of U.S. capital markets has been installed, the head of product has departed, and additional hires are incoming. Her internal rallying cry: until the bell rings, no company is truly decided. NYSE is pitching prospective listers on lower volatility, policy influence, and an internal study suggesting companies that defected to Nasdaq for Nasdaq-100 inclusion actually saw their valuations shrink. The exchange also points to roughly $500 billion in market cap it has attracted year-to-date, including switches from Kraft Heinz and Skydance.

But the poaching runs both ways. Nasdaq recently lured away Hilton Worldwide, and last year Walmart made the jump from NYSE to Nasdaq. Meanwhile, a third threat is emerging from an unlikely source: the Texas Stock Exchange, a Dallas-based upstart that opened for trading this summer. TXSE accounts for less than 1% of U.S. trading volume but has already pulled a handful of existing listings away from both New York exchanges — an unprecedented achievement for a challenger exchange. NYSE has responded by rebranding its electronic NYSE Chicago platform as NYSE Texas and hiring a former senior staffer to Texas Governor Greg Abbott to run it.