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After 2025 that saw some exciting IPO activity but also delays in company debuts as a result of tariffs and the government shutdown. 2026 looks set to make up for lost time with rumored IPO prep for SpaceX, anthropic databricks canva, and even speculation that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will return to the public markets. Well, to get a clearer view of what's hype and what we might actually see this year, I went to the Nasdaq and Times Square to interview the exchange's vice chairman, Bob me McCooey where.
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He wears a lot of hats, including.
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Overseeing the company's international listings and working with private equity and venture capital firms. So there's no better person with whom to review investing in Asian companies. Walmart's unprecedented move of its listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq and what Bob and his team actually do to support the companies after they go public. So Today it's the IPO pipeline from the NASDAQ. We with Bob McKeue. He's got fantastic energy and great insights. You're going to enjoy our conversation. That's in just a moment. But first a word from our sponsor, iherb. John, any New Year's resolutions for you?
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Yeah, I've made wellness more of a priority this year and I'm even taking some gummy vitamins.
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C
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From the floor of the NASDAQ in Times Square, New York, my conversation with Bob McCooey, the Vice Chairman of NASDAQ.
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Well, I'm very excited to sit down with Bob McCooey, Vice Chairman at Nasdaq here on site in the unbelievable building on Times Square. Bob, I'm going to start in your own words. Give me your titles. You're like the queen I'm from that. You're the king from the UK you have so many fabulous titles. Come and tell us what. Tell us what you are able to say.
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I am the chairman of our Asia Pacific business. I'm the head of our international listings business. I am the head of our financial sponsor coverage, all the private equity and venture capital firms, and I'm the global head of our capital markets business. So I get a lot of titles. They hopefully help us open doors, but mostly engaging with clients is what I love to do. And it's great to be here with you because as we were discussing priority prior to getting on camera is the fact that I'm not here that often. Yeah, we've been trying to schedule this for quite a while, but I'm, I'm delighted to be here with you today.
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B
Well, thank you. You're such a busy man and spending time is hugely appreciated. I feel as though 2026 is going to be especially busy for you. Talk to us about the pipeline that you're seeing for IPO activity right now.
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D
Well, it is amazing. If we back to 2021, 752 IPOs, massive amount of market capitalization and then the market was like, oh my goodness, I'm tired. And so we go through 22, 23, 24 every time we felt like there was going to be a momentum shift in the positive direction in each of those years and it just kind of never happened. And we got towards the end of the year and everything got pushed to the next year. And then you get this buildup and, and you have private equity who have bought a lot of companies and need some liquidity and are beginning to take those companies public. You have companies that have now matured to a size and scale that they need to go public. You have obviously early stage investors in these companies who want liquidity and may not be able to get it through enough of it through the private markets. And then obviously you have AI which dominates every conversation and a number of the companies in that area. But what's interesting and is when you talk about AI, you know, we could spend the entire time talking about AI, but there's so much, you know, kind of ripple effect from AI, whether it's energy, data, data centers, the, the software, the hardware, the GPUs, the CPUs, that, everything that goes into making sure that I can become more and more a part of our daily life. And, and it takes capital for all that.
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B
It takes a lot of capital and a lot of time to get that capital to come towards it. We just see IPO activity accelerate in 2025, Bob. After as you said, a sort of fatigue that has set in in 23 and 24. There are about 202 companies that IPO'd the market cap over 50 million. That price in the US last year, up a lot from 2024. How do you think 2026 is going to compare with 2025?
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D
Well, I think all the, the, those that are prognosticating about 2026 are going to say that it could be the largest capital raise year in, in history. I don't know that in terms of number of listings, that will get back to, you know, the number that we saw in 2021 across the two exchanges, there were 1100 listings. But I do think that we will see a significant uptick in the number of listings, in the quality of listings, in the size of listings. And I think there'll be a breadth across kind of all, all sectors rather than it being kind of narrow to just, just a few. So I'm very excited about what this year portends.
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B
Well, let's look at the size of some of these. Okay, so the rumor mill is going space X, anthropic databricks, Canva, possibly Fannie Mae, you know, Freddie Mac. Are any of those going to debut on nasdaq? I love the awkward pause.
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D
You know that I can't comment on anything, but I will say that we feel like we have a very, very strong value proposition. Talk about why. Well, that's why we've won 80% of the IPOs over the past five years. That's why we get amazing companies to switch from our competitors exchange to nasdaq. Most recently, as you know, we had Walmart that switched to us. Yes. In 2025, we saw it. We welcomed Kimberly Clark and Palantir and Domino's Pizza. And so we're, we continue to see Shopify, we continue to see companies that are really embracing what NASDAQ is all about. And what it comes down to is the fact that we have the most innovative companies. The companies that have kind of defined the global economy over the past 25 years that are part of our market and we're about growth and innovation and entrepreneurship. And so companies like to be associated with that. They like to wrap themselves in it.
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B
Why do you think?
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I think it comes from the fact that we, in the 1970s, certainly the early 80s, we embraced those companies that quite honestly, our competitor wouldn't take the apples, the Starbucks, the Microsoft's, those early companies that have been the game changers and now are some of the largest companies in the world. They came to Nasdaq. We've supported them for all these years. And those are the companies and the type of companies kind of innovation, the type of DNA that they have is the DNA that NASDAQ has. And we radiate in the glow of the success of our companies. People say to us, why do you. Why are you successful? We're successful because we've got great people, we've got great products, you know, the services that we provide the companies to help them transition from private to public.
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B
Like what? Give an example of that.
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So investor relations is really an important item for companies. If you go public, you have investment banks, you're very familiar with those, they bring you public. But once you're public, those investment banks, they step away, they've already been paid. And so now you're responsible for getting the word out about who you are and telling quarter after quarter the great story about who you are as a public company. We have the tools to help that company be, be a better public company. And those are understanding their shareholders, understanding the flows in and out, understanding who they should be spending time with. And so telling that story is something that Nasdaq knows is core to the success of a public company. And that's why we've invested in those services that help companies be better public companies.
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B
So I love that. First of all, thank you for sharing something specific because it's so easy to sort of have sound bites. But if you're someone in the audience who perhaps isn't so familiar with how this works, you're sort of left asking, well, what is it that Nasdaq does differently from the New York Stock Exchange? And you gave the example. Wal Mart moved over. Congratulations. In December. It was the largest transfer in exchange history.
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Oh, by far, far.
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Now, a Wal Mart, frankly, perhaps doesn't need such a lift to get its story out to shareholders. It's incredibly well known institutions and retail investors alike. So what does that come down to? Is it about offering them lower fees? Is it because they want the halo of technology? Because in my mind, they're a technology hiding in plain sight. What is it? Tangibly?
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You hit it tangibly. You hit it tangibly. What Walmart wants to get out of being part of the Nasdaq family, which is they're not bricks and mortar. Their growth over the past 50 years of being public has been bricks and mortar. But as you know, they've transitioned to be an amazing e commerce company. All you had to do was watch football over the weekend, American football over the weekend, and see Walmart plus, and, and so you know that that's where they are. And so whether it's Jet or Bonobos or the, all of the, the companies that they've bought, they're, they're a E commerce behemoth, as you said, hiding in plain sight. And when they come to Nasdaq, they get the chance to suddenly tell that story differently. They're with these amazing E commerce companies, with these amazing technology companies that are on Nasdaq and it hopefully gets some of those investors that are on the fence saying, oh my goodness, Walmart, that's right, they're doing all these amazing things in technology and they are so driven by E commerce that that's their future. I want to invest in that company.
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It's so interesting that the power of your brand at Nasdaq can as a result translate to influence the brand of some of your clients. You said at the top, Bob, with.
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The many things you do.
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Let's talk about what you're doing in Asia. Some very exciting companies are coming out of Asia, but I remember a couple of them going public in the United States. I remember watching Grab go public via SPAC in 2021. The question that crossed my mind then was is the US Investor going to get their mind around the complexity of the different kinds of businesses and markets in, in Asia? Because not every country there is the same same as in Europe. It's a fairly complicated story to tell. How are you finding receptiveness amongst folks you're wooing in Asia to perhaps consider listing here?
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D
You're right. When you start to talk about a company like Grab, Grab is at its core a super app. And when they first went public and some companies that preceded them being public as super apps, US investors didn't know what a super app was. So it was an education and it's a continued education. And by the way, it's something that we take very seriously at Nasdaq. One of the reasons why we run two conferences in London every single year is we bring our NASDAQ listed companies to put them in front of the European investor who is a fantastic, stable, long term investor who will spend time with the companies, will come in prepared and then when they buy, they'll buy in size. And a company like Grab or you know, some of the major companies here in the US that will attend our conference, it's the largest investor conference in the UK actually in Europe, every single year they will really feel like they've got a lot of value out of it. It's just one of the things that we do here at Nasdaq to provide value to our companies because there's plenty of investor conferences here in the US but there aren't so many that are in London that that attract those and grabs attended our conference. A company like Mercado Libre d local companies from around the globe who may not have exposure in in that market in the European investor community. And so we try to do things they're just a little differently, not the same way. I mean obviously it's the reason why Nasdaq exists is we don't do things the same way as as our competitor does.
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Let's take a quick break. More of my conversation with Bob McCooey in a moment. Public.com just launched generated Assets which helps you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. Start with any prompt say renewable energy companies with high free cash flow or semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year and it'll get to work.
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Just head to public.com brewmarkets to see it in action. That's public.com brewmarkets paid for by Public Investing.
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Full Disclosure in Podcast Description.
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This episode is brought to you by Credit Karma. When it comes to your money, Credit Karma keeps you ahead of the game. You can count on Credit Karma to keep up with your financial needs as they evolve, helping you monitor your progress and giving you personalized recommendations so you can make strides towards your goals. Make sure you're on the right track no matter where you are on your financial journey. Intuit Credit Karma Karma you can count on.
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Download Today Back to my conversation with Bob McCooey, the vice chairman of Nasdaq.
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There's something else you're doing which has caught my attention and that's opening an exchange or opened an exchange in Dallas, Texas. Now Nasdaq to your point, the history of technology, we're in a virtual world. We're tech enabled. Why open another physical location here in the United States?
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So we know that Texas is I think the eighth largest economy in the world. So many of our companies are moving to Texas and we really wanted to because there are some very tangible reasons from a tax policy standpoint, from an investment policy policy standpoint to be in Texas is that we want to make sure that we offer the opportunity for our companies to be there. And we have so many companies who are in that market already. American Airlines, Keurig, Dr. Pepper. You know, we've seen obviously Tesla move to move to Texas. So we're seeing so many of our companies gravitate towards being there. We want to be there too. One of the things I say as I travel the globe is NASDAQ is truly global, but really local. We compete against a exchange here in the US who has one physical location in Lower Manhattan. My teammates are in Tokyo, in Seoul, in Hong Kong, and Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore, Manila. I'm going to go see 500 of my, my teammates in Manila in a couple weeks. That's what NASDAQ brings around the globe to make sure that we can bring the best of NASDAQ and bring the best of our products, services, support to companies as they transition from private to public. And then supporting a company like we're here every morning, we've got CNBC here as part of Comcast. Comcast listed on NASDAQ in 1971, the first year that NASDAQ existed. And now they just spun off Versant to us. But if we hadn't supported them for all these years, hadn't worked very closely with them, I'm not going to say they wouldn't have been successful. But we're partners in that success and that goes back to radiating in the glow of the success of our companies. We invest in great people, we invest in great products around the globe, and we allow our people to deliver something amazing to those companies every day and just be a small part of their success.
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Let's talk about some of the insights you get in this unbelievably unique situation that you're in, including in your global presence. The rise of the retail investor in the United States has been huge. And I should actually do this analysis, but I'm willing to bet if I look at the top retail investor favorite stocks, an overwhelming majority of them are probably NASDAQ listed companies, right? So you see a lot of, a lot of flows, as you said earlier. Do you get a lot of insight into what's going on with retail investors here? Or are you really looking at the brokerages to get you that kind of information?
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So I'll say two things. One is, I think we all thought that 19, excuse me, 20, 20, 2021, 2022. As we were in Covid, we were all sitting at home, we had nothing else to do. So we were all, you know, playing the market. The market was, was very successful, lots of IPOs. There was a lot of activity and that was the rise of the retail investor. And everyone was talking about it. I think most people thought that, okay, we're all back to work. We're all going to know we're continuing to see a dominant amount of share of interest by those retail investors in the markets each and every day. It continues to grow and there are more and more companies. We've had a couple that listed with us these past couple years, we will etoro that are catering to that retail investor. So we really think that it's going to be important and this has a long tail. The retail investor is not going away. On the other side of your question is really for the corporates, how do they understand the flows in and out of their stock? And that's one of the key things that NASDAQ does and we've done for over 25 years and is we have a stock surveillance business here. So we help companies to understand, especially on the institutional level because those are the ones who are going to really drive the stock. But who are their major investors? Who's buying into their stock? Who's selling out of their stock? Who should they be spending time with in order to get those investors into the stock? Who's got the dry powder to invest? Who's investing in your sector? All of these are done by people on our side, enhanced by AI, using more AI as you would suspect. If we're not, then we're going to be left behind in a competitive business. But our team does an amazing job and it's really an extension of the investor relations officer in house at a firm. Most of our large companies also rely upon someone here at NASDAQ to help them understand what who are their major investors and where they should be spending time?
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B
And what about in the Asian markets you spend so much time in? Right. When you meet with your 500 teammates in Manila, how much are you going to hear from them about the rise of the retail investor in the Philippines? Or when you're in Singapore, how much are you hearing about that happening there?
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Well, the interesting thing about NASDAQ is when I first came to Nasdaq, the entire senior management team sat around a small, small table. Fast forward 19 years, just 10,000 people around the globe and, and from doing basically back then listings and trading all that we do now, we're the largest provider of market technology. We do anti financial crimes. We have data index, we have, we trade every product, not just equities. So there are so many other things that we do. So when I go to Manila in my vice chairman hat, I'm not just seeing those in the listings and Services, part of our business. I'm seeing people in every one of those businesses so supporting people around the globe. So that's, you know, it's a very different engagement that I have with them than I would have had, you know, five, 10, 15 years ago as NASDAQ has grown from a single digit billion dollar company to a $57 billion market cap company that we are today.
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B
And talk about private markets, if you don't mind for a minute, because, and I have a bias here, I grew up in private equity and there are always sort of conflicted feelings about exiting through an ipo, right? At some level, depending on the size of the company, you prefer to sell to a strategic because it's a clean deal. The cash hit your bank account. You know, you're not hanging on to someone else's stock when you've lost control of it. But we've seen whether it's venture capital backed or private equity backed businesses, sometimes by their choice, others because of circumstances beyond their control, these companies have stayed private for longer. How do you compete against that? Or how do you serve that need at Nasdaq? If you've got businesses that are saying, we like you, we like your team and your insights, but actually we want to just find more private capital for the moment and not report quarterly, for example.
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D
Right. So we have a NASDAQ private market that we started. We, we put together two of the platforms that were really active years ago when Facebook and Groupon and all those companies were trading in the private markets. And we have the largest now private market. And this kind of extends what we do in the public markets. We want to support companies when they're private and make sure that they get the best of Nasdaq and get introduced to Nasdaq as they are private, and then help them with obviously liquidity opportunities. There's more and more investors who are investing at early stages. But beyond that, you also have those employees, engineers who came in and thought there was an IPO. And then suddenly you go through 22 or 23 and the markets aren't there and you don't want to go public at a discount. And so how do I allow for my employees to sell a small portion of their shares, kind of, kind of take that little air out of the balloon, relieve the pressure. And so we have the NASDAQ private market, which allow for a liquidity event like that for somebody that needs to buy a house or put their child through school. So the private markets are an important and growing part of our business. And our focus at nasdaq. The other part about it is, to your point about private equity, when a company on NASDAQ gets bought by private equity. And people used to say to me, like, oh, Bob, isn't that terrible? You're losing another client, I say, and they don't even bother saying it anymore. They'll be back. Exactly right. All it becomes is another target for us for a company that's going to be public soon. I remember the first SailPoint IPO. They actually didn't list with us the first time around. We lost them to the other exchange. They went private and then they went public again with us last year. So there's always those, those other opportunities. There's the recycling of capital in the market. That's what the amazing part is about, about our market is so many opportunities and we just want to be at the center of it.
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B
Well, I hope to grab you in a moment when you're not on the road again, Bob, later on this year perhaps to talk some more about how that's going.
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D
Well, let's do it over a football match. Maybe I can get you to, to a real team in London. Yes, Tandem. Hotspur. Absolutely love it.
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B
And I can actually say football as it was intended to someone who understands what it means.
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Well, it's a game you play with your feet, so wouldn't you want to call football?
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I agree.
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I've never understood the loss of it. Thank you so much. Lots more to talk about, more on how 2026 goes.
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Come back anytime.
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Thank you very much, sir.
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Huge thanks to Bob McCooey for joining us and for having me at the NASDAQ studios for our conversation today. Well, that's it, folks, for today's Brew Markets Daily. Have a fantastic weekend.
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Brew Markets Daily is hosted by Anne Barry and produced by John Curto, Targab Delatif and Emily Milian. Our technical director is Lonnie Fiskus. Jim Orzo is our audio engineer. Guest booking by A.B. silver and the president of Morning Brew Inc. Is Devin Emery. If you have any feedback or a company you'd like us to COVID leave a comment or send an email to brewmarketshoworningbrew.com Wake up on Monday with the.
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Morning Brew newsletter and tune in to Neil and Toby on Morning Brew Daily. We'll see you back here on Monday, Same time, same place.
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It.