Screens showing rising stocks at the Taiwan Stock Exchange office, following US President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to suspend global tariffs, in Taipei, Taiwan, April 10, 2025.
Daniel Ceng Anadolu | Getty Images
Asia has no shortage of entrepreneurs, developers or large domestic markets. But when it comes to producing the kind of blockbuster listings seen in the US, the region continues to spread.
The challenge is not a lack of technical ability. Across China, India, South Korea and Japan, companies dominate industries from semiconductors and electric vehicles to robotics and advanced manufacturing. The big question is whether Asian capital markets are designed to grow firms into large state-owned enterprises.
“Asia has the technological capacity, scale, and talent base to support mega-IPOs, but capital markets remain constrained by structural and behavioral factors,” said Lenny Zéphirin, founder of Zephirin Group.
Asia produced large listings, but few on the scale of the US’s largest tech offering.
Memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) is planning a Shanghai IPO expected to raise at least 29.5 billion yuan ($4.3 billion), potentially the country’s largest since 2022, while Indian telco Jio Platforms is seeking to raise around 120 billion yuan in its planned IPO.
In comparison, Space X started with a valuation of $1.77 trillion, and reached $2 trillion in its first trading days.
The valuation premium has historically encouraged some of Asia’s largest technology companies to acquire US markets. Chinese internet giants Alibaba again JD.com both listed in New York to reach the deeper pools of international capital before following a listing in Hong Kong later.
A common theme emerges across the region: companies often face less patient private equity funds, stricter listing requirements and lower valuation multiples than their US counterparts.
“The biggest driver in the US has been the large amount of private equity funds available to carry these types of firms to the stage where they will market at a very high price,” said John Fildes, a partner at Bain & Co.
The US market also continues to reward technology companies with higher valuations than Asian exchanges, analysts say.
China and Hong Kong: Technology is not a barrier
China undoubtedly has the industrial base to produce companies that can rival America’s largest. Leadership in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, robotics and advanced manufacturing shows that innovation is not the main bottleneck.
Instead, analysts point to the financial ecosystem.
“China has the industrial strength, market scale and talent to create a great company,” said Wenjie Ding, global investment strategist at China Asset Management.
China’s commercial industry tends to operate with shorter investment horizons than the US, while cross-border capital remains very limited and institutional capital is less willing to finance long-term, high-risk innovations.
Ding argued that larger allocations from domestic insurers and pension funds, as well as expanded cross-border investment channels through Hong Kong, could help narrow the gap.
Hong Kong maintains the infrastructure to handle very large donations but lacks the ecosystem to generate them regularly, Zéphirin said.
Big city IPOs have since been dominated by banks rather than venture-backed technology companies, while analyst-driven valuation narratives are still being developed.
South Korea: World-class industries, discount rate
South Korea is home to globally competitive semiconductor, battery and technology companies, but industry experts have noted that market structure has prevented many firms from achieving US benchmarks.
Peter Kim, global investment strategist at KB Financial Group, said SK Hynix again Samsung Electronics it now accounts for about half of the average Kospi index, leaving the rest of the market relatively small. Even SK Hynix has plans for a US listing as investors increasingly reward semiconductor firms with higher valuations overseas.
Other capacities, including automobiles and shipbuilding, are industries that typically trade at low multiples.
Analysts also pointed to the chaebol system of family-owned conglomerates.
“Chaebols have been central to Korean industrial participation, but today they are more of a hindrance than a help in building new, independent champions,” Polka Mishra of Javelin Wealth told CNBC in an email.
He added that the long-term “Korean discount”, concentrated ownership and historically limited investment have also hindered mega-IPOs. Recent management changes and a new framework for basic investors may boost confidence, but meaningful participation from long-term institutions such as the National Pension Service will likely be needed before Korea can consistently produce larger lists.
India: Deep need, but domestic aspirations
India has a strong IPO market, supported by strong domestic participation from retail investors, mutual funds and pension funds.
The planned listing of Jio Platforms could be a watershed moment for India’s capital markets. The telecom and digital services giant has filed for an IPO that is expected to value the company at around 120 billion.
But even at that size, it will remain well below the estimates of the largest US tech IPOs as India’s tech giants remain more domestically oriented and under pressure to show profitability early.
Pranav Sayta, partner at EY India, said structural changes in equity investments have made the market unusually strong, with structured investment schemes and pension funds continuing to support the portfolio despite periods of volatility.
But analysts say generating a mega-IPO requires more than just a big demand.
“India, with its strong economy and abundant entrepreneurial talent, is in a good position to come out with more IPOs. But the time is not yet ripe for mega-IPOs of the scale of some of the largest US lists,” said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
He argues that India’s biggest tech companies are always focused more on the domestic market than pursuing global standards. Many startups also operate in low-income businesses such as food delivery and quick commerce, while investors often seek profits much earlier than their US counterparts.
“The kind of private equity funding available in the US is not available to Indian startups,” says Vijayakumar. “Also, there is pressure on Indian startups to show profitability early. So, they pursue profitability before growth.”
Taken together, analysts describe a gap that goes beyond individual exchanges. The US benefits from large funds willing to finance companies a decade or more before listing, deep institutional and retail participation, broad analyst coverage and investors willing to pay for future growth.
But the bigger picture is that Asia is gradually building up more of the same ingredients. India’s domestic savings pool continues to deepen, China is reopening its technology financing pipeline, South Korea is pursuing governance reforms and Hong Kong remains a regional gateway for international capital.
-CNBC’s Ellyani Hanis contributed to this report.
