For Nasdaq Inc., this has been a blockbuster year of technology IPOs as its exchange landed listings by SpaceX and Anthropic PBC.
But the venue is also attracting another type of company: household names like General Motors Co. eager to be seen as tech-centric, too.
Nasdaq has been able to reel in companies including GM, Walmart Inc. and Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., luring more than $1 trillion of combined market capitalization away from rival exchanges in the past year. That’s created a stir in the industry as incumbents including Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s New York Stock Exchange lose some high-profile listings.
With tech giants accounting for an outsize share of U.S. stock-market appreciation in recent years, legacy companies are migrating to a platform where their prices may get a bump, potentially joining sought-after indexes, and from there, exchange-traded funds.
Detroit-based General Motors, which worked for more than a month to get its listing transferred, pointed to the potential eligibility to join the Nasdaq 100 Index, which could open up the stock to even more investors including Nasdaq-tied index funds. The automaker is also seeking to position itself as a tech-forward company, one that’s embracing the rise of automated driving and electric vehicles.
Hilton wanted a platform that CEO Chris Nassetta said aligned more with its “innovation and growth ambitions.” The hotel company made itself asset light and is leaning into new services such as artificial intelligence-powered trip planning.
Companies “probably want to receive some of the glow from the AI halo,” said Brent Leadbetter, head of RAFI distribution at TMX Group Ltd.’s VettaFi. “Switching to the Nasdaq might be a way to signal that.”
The wins are fueling a strong year for Nasdaq despite a flood of new competitors, including a Texas exchange. Nasdaq’s new operating company listings have raised $144 billion in proceeds this year through the third quarter. Its own stock climbed about 7.4% this year through Tuesday’s close, outpacing rival ICE, which has declined 4%.
Even though the listings business represents just a sliver of Nasdaq’s total revenue, it has historically carried outsize influence, according to Clear Street analyst Owen Lau. The amount of operating companies going public on Nasdaq is about three times that of NYSE’s this year, Lau said.
“Because of the listing business, they can sell additional services such as data, workflow and trading,” Lau said in an interview. “And more importantly, if a new company comes into the index, they may be eligible to be included in the Nasdaq 100 Composite.”
NYSE, for its part, has been able to take some listings away from Nasdaq. In August, Kraft Heinz Co. said it would also transfer its listing. A NYSE spokesperson said a half trillion dollars of market capitalization has transferred to its exchange so far this year.
Nasdaq’s index business has given it an additional lucrative proposition: the potential to tap billions in passive exposure from the vast pools of money that track its benchmarks. The Nasdaq 100 — directly benchmarked to more than $700 billion in exchange-traded funds globally — has been delivering relentless gains for investors riding the artificial intelligence boom, with the index climbing about 17% this year through Tuesday’s close.
Nasdaq’s index business has become one of its fastest growth engines, with revenue at that operation climbing 39% to $286 million of revenue in the third quarter.
Months after Walmart announced its jump last year from NYSE, the retailer joined the Nasdaq 100 Index. As it stands now, General Motors and Hilton are large enough to qualify for the index, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified citing private discussions.
It’s good timing, too. Nasdaq does its annual reconstitution of the index every year in December, and the stocks have to be trading on the exchange ahead of that.
“If it’s added to the index, the passive funds that track the index are forced to add the stock,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said. “It’s just additional demand for the stock.”
For years, entering that index took some time. Newly listed companies had to trade for at least three months to be included, with the idea that it allows share prices to settle after a volatile post-IPO period.
But earlier this year, Nasdaq made it easier to join the index, slashing the time it takes for the biggest newly listed companies to enter the Nasdaq 100 and removing a minimum 10% float requirement. That rule change has sparked criticism by rivals, including NYSE.
NYSE President Lynn Martin told Bloomberg TV in May that certain rule changes designed to “woo some of the large companies” such as SpaceX were “questionable.”
Martin said at the time that the rules are designed to help protect investors. She also called out a provision that Nasdaq changed for companies with low float, a key topic given the tech companies that have gone public but have loads of shares locked up.
While some rivals including FTSE Russell embraced a similar change to speed up the addition of newly listed companies, not all peers followed suit. In June, S&P Dow Jones Indices said it will keep its existing eligibility requirements for benchmarks including the S&P 500, which requires a 12-month seasoning period for newly public firms.
At the same time, exchanges are facing a flood of new competitors. There’s more traditional ones, such as the Texas Stock Exchange. That venue has lured companies including Dillard’s Inc., Energy Transfer LP and Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. On Tuesday, TXSE CEO James Lee announced that State Street Corp. invested in the exchange, joining a roster that includes BlackRock Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
There’s also a rush of new technology transforming the business. Nasdaq has sought to stay ahead by striking deals with companies including Payward, the parent of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. ICE, the owner of NYSE, has invested in Polymarket, which operates a major predictions market business.
Increasingly, exchanges are also facing pressure to keep trading open for more hours, given the rise of cryptocurrency platforms and prediction market operations that allow retail investors to trade whenever. In response, NYSE and Nasdaq have both announced extended trading hours. On Tuesday, Deutsche Boerse AG said it’d start offering continuous trading of stocks on the 40-member DAX Index.
Last week, Nasdaq said it expects to launch 23 hours, five-days-a-week trading on the Nasdaq stock market on Dec. 6.
“This launch of expanded, nearly continuous weekday trading hours is an important step in the journey to always-on markets,” Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman said in a call with analysts.
