SPACs raise $24B as 2025 marks strongest year since 2021 boom
According to The Kobeissi Letter on X, an industry commentary and analysis platform on the global capital markets, “2025 is now on track to be the strongest year for SPACs since 2021.”
Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have raised more than $24 billion since November 2024. Those figures confirm a resurgence that has seen those investment vehicles raising more this year compared to the previous two years.
SPACs make $24 billion comeback
According to SPAC data platform SPACAnalytics, 2025 has already seen 110 new SPAC IPOs, raising over $22 billion, which accounts for roughly two-thirds of U.S. IPO volume this year.
This is coming after SPACs were left for dead after their moment in the sun between 2020 and 2021. They raised a record $250 billion in those two years before the bottom fell out as poor returns brought everything crashing down.
In the first quarter of 2025, 19 new SPAC listings returned the optimism around the market, raising a combined $3.1 billion. Most of those rounds were also led by seasoned sponsors.
Speculative frontiers benefit from SPAC return
The last time SPACs were relevant, most of the funds went into electric vehicles and fintech. However, this new cycle is being powered by nuclear energy, quantum computing, and cryptocurrency, sectors that combine frontier innovation with a healthy dose of risk.
SPACs’ interest in nuclear technology projects may not be unrelated to the boom in data center infrastructures in the United States and across the world, as well as the power demands that accompany them.
Major tech giants have recently committed to agreements to revamp nuclear facilities or build new ones to power data centers and AI infrastructures, and the projection is that more of such facilities may spring up in the near future as power consumption surges exponentially globally.
Quantum computing has also seen an interest surge as Big Tech firms like Microsoft, Google, and AMD have claimed major breakthroughs in the high-potential sector.
The crypto industry, which has seen a major turnaround in fortunes since the last quarter of 2024, is reappearing in SPAC pipelines as digital asset adoption rebounds thanks to a pro-crypto White House led by President Donald Trump.
Are investors taking any lessons from the past?
Since January 2019, only 11% of the 589 companies that went public through SPAC mergers trade above their original listing price, according to Bloomberg data shared by The Kobeissi Letter.
Another 31% have been acquired or gone bankrupt, while nearly half have lost between 50% and 99% of their value.
Only 11% of the companies that went public through SPAC mergers trade above their original listing price. Source: Bloomberg data shared by The Kobeissi Letter.
However, proponents argue that this new generation of sponsors is more disciplined, although that optimism has not faced a major test this year. The sectors receiving the most attention are doing relatively well, either from the market side of things or the regulatory outlook.
If crypto prices crash, quantum development stalls, or nuclear projects hit regulatory roadblocks, the very sectors powering the SPAC comeback could also trigger its next collapse.
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