Why Asia still struggles to create its own mega-IPOs like SpaceX

Screens showing surging stock shares at the Taiwan Stock Exchange office, following U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise decision to pause the global tariffs, in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 10, 2025. Daniel Ceng | Anadolu | Getty Images Asia has no shortage of entrepreneurs, engineers or giant domestic markets. Yet when it comes to producing the kind of blockbuster listings seen in the U.S., the region continues to lag. The challenge is not a lack of technological capability. Across China, India, South Korea and Japan, companies dominate industries ranging from semiconductors and electric vehicles to robotics and advanced manufacturing. The bigger question is whether Asia's capital markets are structured to nurture firms into mega-cap public companies. "Asia has the technological capability, scale, and talent base to support mega-IPOs, but capital markets remain constrained by structural and behavioral factors," said Lenny Zéphirin, founder of the Zephirin Group. Asia has produced large listings, but few on the scale of the U.S.'s biggest technology offerings. 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, and Indian telco Jio Platforms is seeking a valuation of about $120 billion in its planned IPO . In comparison, Space X debuted at a valuation of $1.77 trillion , even topping $2 trillion in its earliest days of trading . …