With SpaceX now 11 weeks into public trading and OpenAI’s listing still ahead, a September 2026 report reveals which stocks have actually made early investors the most money since their IPOs. A new study by online trading platform Taurex ranked landmark listings by how much a single IPO share has grown once every stock split is accounted for.
- Early Walmart investors have made more money than anyone, with a $1,000 stake from 1970 now worth over $38.9M.
- Coca-Cola has outperformed every tech giant, turning one $40 IPO share into 9,216 shares worth around USD 830K.
- Nvidia’s IPO price was just $12 in 1999, the same year the dot-com bubble was inflating, and it still only ranks fifth, behind McDonald’s.
The research tracked 18 well-known companies from their original IPO date through now. For each company, the report recorded the official offer price on the first day of trading, then every stock split since, and multiplied those ratios to find how many shares one IPO share has become today.
Companies were then ranked by what a $1,000 stake bought at the offer price would be worth now, revealing which ones rewarded early investors the most.
Here’s a look at the 10 companies that delivered the biggest returns since their IPO:
| Company | IPO date | IPO offer price | Cumulative split factor | True cost per share after splits | Share price today | Value of $1,000 invested at IPO |
| Walmart Inc. | 01 Oct 1970 | $16.50 | 6,144.x | $0.002686 | $104.34 | $38,852,422 |
| The Coca-Cola Company | 05 Sep 1919 | $40.00 | 9,216.x | $0.004340 | $90.08 | $20,754,432 |
| The Home Depot, Inc. | 22 Sep 1981 | $12.00 | 341.71875x | $0.035117 | $334.85 | $9,535,377 |
| McDonald’s Corporation | 21 Apr 1965 | $22.50 | 729.x | $0.030864 | $266.93 | $8,648,532 |
| NVIDIA Corporation | 22 Jan 1999 | $12.00 | 480.x | $0.025000 | $209.66 | $8,386,400 |
| Microsoft Corporation | 13 Mar 1986 | $21.00 | 288.x | $0.072917 | $496.37 | $6,807,360 |
| Intel Corporation | 13 Oct 1971 | $23.50 | 1,215.x | $0.019342 | $88.24 | $4,562,196 |
| Amazon.com, Inc. | 15 May 1997 | $18.00 | 240.x | $0.075000 | $260.28 | $3,470,400 |
| Oracle Corporation | 12 Mar 1986 | $15.00 | 324.x | $0.046296 | $148.87 | $3,215,592 |
| Apple Inc. | 12 Dec 1980 | $22.00 | 224.x | $0.098214 | $313.45 | $3,191,491 |
Would you like me to send you the full research document, the calculations as well as methodology and sources?
1. Walmart
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IPO date: October 1, 1970
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IPO offer price: USD 16.50
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Price on August 26, 2026: USD 104.34
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Stock splits since IPO: 12, turning one share into 6,144
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Return since IPO: 38,852x
Walmart has made early investors the most money of any major IPO. The retailer went public at $17 a share in October 1970, and twelve splits later that same share is 6,144 shares worth around USD 641K, a 38,852x increase in value. That means $1,000 put in on day one would be sitting at around USD 38.9M today. What makes this unusual is that Walmart rarely appears in rankings like this one, because most versions divide today’s price by the 1970 offer price and drop the splits in between.
2. Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola’s 107 years on the market put it ahead of almost every household tech name. The drinks maker listed in September 1919 at USD 40 per share. Eleven splits later, it became 9,216 shares worth $830K, more than 20,000 times the original price. In other words, a $1,000 investment in Coca-Cola at the IPO would be worth roughly 20.8 million dollars now.
3. Home Depot
Home Depot listed on the Nasdaq in September 1981 at USD 12 a share, the lowest offer price in the study. Today that share trades at $334.85, and thirteen splits mean one 1981 share is now 341.7 shares, so a $1,000 stake from that day would now be worth close to USD 9.5M. The split factor is a fraction rather than a round number, because two of those thirteen splits were 5-for-4 and 4-for-3.
4. McDonald’s
McDonald’s went public in April 1965 at USD 22.50 per share, decades before any technology company on this list, and has split its stock twelve times since. One IPO share is now worth about USD 195K (729 shares), an 8,649x gain on the offer price. For most of its history, McDonald’s has been treated as a slow, defensive holding rather than a growth story. It has still returned more to its earliest shareholders than Nvidia.
5. Nvidia
Nvidia was listed in January 1999 at USD 12 per share, right in the middle of the dot-com boom, and survived the crash that wiped out most of its early peers. Six splits since then mean one IPO share is now 480 shares worth around USD 100K, which is a return of 8,386 times the original price. That is the strongest result of any technology company here, and it is still only enough for fifth place.
A market analyst from Taurex commented on the findings:
“The figure most people quote for these companies is wrong, and it is wrong in the same direction every time. Divide Walmart’s price today by its 1970 offer price, and you get 532%, which is why Walmart never shows up on lists like this. The real number is closer to 3,885,000%, and the whole gap is twelve stock splits the arithmetic dropped. What the corrected ranking shows is that the biggest outcomes did not come from picking the most exciting company. Tesla has compounded faster than Walmart ever did, 42.5% a year against 20.8%, and Tesla still ranks fourteenth here. Walmart had 56 years. For anyone watching SpaceX now, or OpenAI next, that matters more than any first-day pop.”
