Initial public offerings are back in vogue.
SpaceX and artificial-intelligence chip company Cerebras Systems, which went public in May, had impressive debuts this year. Claude owner Anthropic is expected to go public this fall.
But IPO investors shouldn't forget to look overseas.
New stocks from companies trading in international markets have outpaced their U.S. counterparts over the past few years. It's a trend that's picked up even more steam recently.
Several Chinese tech stocks have more than doubled on their first day of trading on Shanghai's STAR Market this year. Chinese data center supplier company Zhongji Innolight is up slightly from its IPO price as well. So are shares of Victory Giant Technology, a Chinese manufacturer of circuit boards. SpaceX and Cerebras, on the other hand, have given up their gains from the first day and are now trading near their IPO prices.
And just look at the performance of the Renaissance International IPO exchange-traded fund versus the Renaissance IPO ETF this year. The international fund is up nearly 40% in 2026 compared with about an 18% gain for the flagship fund, which focuses on U.S.-listed companies.
Nearly half of the international fund's holdings are Chinese companies and about a quarter of the companies in the ETF are listed in Japan. Two Japanese stocks in particular with ties to the AI trade have helped boost the international ETF's performance, according to Avery Marquez, director of investment strategies with Renaissance Capital.
Chip equipment company Kokusai Electric, which makes up more than 7% of the fund's assets, has more than doubled this year. Flash memory storage maker Kioxia, which has soared more than 400% in 2026, has a 6.5% weighting in the fund. (Kioxia, which is also a top holding in the popular Roundhill Memory ETF, is planning a U.S. listing.)
Both Renaissance funds include companies that have made their public market debuts within the past three years. Kokusai, for example, went public in late 2023 while Kioxia went public in Tokyo in December 2024. So the ETFs own a mix of brand new IPOs and some slightly older ones. (Renaissance waits a few months before adding new holdings to the ETFs. SpaceX will be eligible for inclusion at the end of September.)
Marquez noted that the international fund is currently getting a lift thanks to "tailwinds in Asia's semiconductor sector." But the international IPO ETF's longer term track record isn't as strong as the broader market's.
Renaissance's international IPO ETF has posted an average annualized return of just 3% over the past ten years. The iShares MSCI ACWI ex U.S. ETF, which owns Taiwan Semiconductor, Samsung, ASML, SK Hynix and Tencent as top holdings, has a more than 9% annualized gain over the past decade.
It's a similar trend for IPOs in the U.S. Renaissance's flagship ETF has posted annualized returns of 10% over the past decade. While that's better than the performance of international IPOs and the broader market non-U. S. indexes, it still lags behind the 15% annualized gains for the S&P 500 over the last ten years.
The IPO market-both in the U.S. and abroad-may continue to exhibit strong momentum in the short-term as long as investors remain infatuated with AI companies. But IPOs are inherently risky. Don't be surprised if splashy debuts for new companies eventually cool off-and the IPOs for highflying international stocks have further to fall.
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