Investors kicked off 2025 hoping to see the healthy return of what had become a rare species: the initial public offering, or IPO. After three years of stalled transactions and historically low deal activity, many believed the Trump administration would prioritize deregulation and economic growth, triggering a healthy flurry of new IPOs in the process.
And indeed, that confidence led to the busiest start of a year for IPOs since the boom of 2020 and 2021. To be sure, after an initial burst of exuberance, March and April were rocky: A gale of macroeconomic forces—including tariffs and persistently high inflation and interest rates—led the pipeline to dry up as some firms put IPO plans on ice.
