TL;DR

• August held its footing: 48 U.S. offerings raised $37.8B, extending the market’s streak of healthy issuance despite the traditional seasonal slowdown.
• Marketed FOs, second-largest month in six years: $22.2B raised, driven by Intel’s (INTC) $20.0B offering, the anchor of the month and a continuation of the “fewer, larger, more concentrated” theme flagged in the July recap.
• IPO count up, dollars down: 9 IPOs raised $1.96B (plus $165M in exercised over-allotment), extending the four-month IPO run into August’s typically dormant window, though at a smaller average size than the record-setting summer months. 
• Healthcare leads on performance, Tech leads on volume: Healthcare posted +15.5% dollar-weighted 1-day returns across 18 deals; Technology raised $23.3B across five offerings, its second-highest volume month ever (behind July 2026).  

U.S. ECM Holds the Line 

August has historically been a dormant window for U.S. equity issuance. In last year’s August recap, we flagged the breaking of a three-year IPO drought as six offerings raised $3.3B. A year later, the market has remained structurally busy: 48 offerings raised $37.8B in August 2026, keeping the streak of healthy monthly volumes intact and extending the trend of concentrated, large-cap issuance we’ve tracked through the summer. 

Nine IPOs contributed $1.96B; 39 follow-on offerings drove the remaining $35.9B, a mix that reinforces the market’s tilt toward secondary supply and mega-cap follow-on activity. 

IPOs: Count Up, Dollars Down, Momentum Intact 

IPO activity carried the four-month streak into August, but at a very different profile than July’s SK Hynix–led record. Nine IPOs raised $1.96B, with $165M in over-allotment exercised. All of the exercised greenshoe came from the Healthcare cohort (four of the month’s five healthcare IPOs). 

The count is a notable step up from August 2025’s six IPOs, but the average deal size is smaller — reflecting a healthcare-heavy August rather than the mega-IPO windows of May, June and July.  

Marketed FOs: Intel Anchors a Six-Year High 

Our July Insights flagged trailing 90-day ECM volume topping $200B for the first time on record, and framed the environment as fewer deals, larger sizes, more concentrated offerings. August put an exclamation point on that theme. 

Marketed follow-ons raised $22.2B in gross proceeds, with an additional $3.2B in exercised over-allotment, the second-largest marketed FO month in the last six years. Intel Corp. (INTC) was the single largest contributor at $20.0B, an offering large enough on its own to reshape the month’s league tables and skew Technology’s sector totals meaningfully. 

Sector Spotlight: Technology Doubles Down 

Technology posted back-to-back standout months. Five technology offerings raised $23.3B in August ($26.8B including over-allotment), the sector’s second-highest volume month on record, falling just $1.24B short of July 2026. 

Intel’s $20B FO drove the bulk of the total as mentioned above. 

Sector Spotlight: Healthcare Leads on Performance 

Healthcare, the consistent workhorse of ECM issuance, priced 18 offerings in August, just above the YTD monthly average of 17. Total proceeds came to $2.40B (plus $221M in over-allotment) across five IPOs and 13 follow-ons. 

More notable than the volume was the aftermarket performance: Healthcare led all sectors at +15.5% on a dollar-weighted 1-day basis, driven largely by the +27.6% dollar-weighted 1-day return on its IPO cohort. Investor demand for new healthcare listings remains one of the more constructive signals for the month. 

New Coverage: PIPEs and Registered Directs, Now in DataLab 

CMG launched its PIPEs/RD dataset. Tracking U.S. issuance in August: $4.45B raised across 90 PIPE deals, and $179M raised across 24 registered directs. 

For a full YTD breakdown, see our U.S. PIPEs & Registered Directs Market Overview. To learn more, contact us.