What's going on?

Chinese ride hailing giant Didi made quite the entrance onto the US stock market on Wednesday, and investors initially sent its shares up 19%.

What does this mean?

Didi�s stock market debut raised around $4.4 billion, making it the second-biggest US listing by a Chinese company after Alibaba�s back in 2014 (tweet this). Its stock bump puts the company�s valuation at $80 billion � up $18 billion from its last private funding round. And while that�s some way off the $100 billion some analysts had been anticipating, it bodes well for another East Asian firm with Stateside aspirations: Singapore�s Grab Holdings will be hoping it can follow in Didi�s footsteps when � if all goes to plan � it lists later in the year by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: SoftBank cashes in.
This listing is a big deal for venture capital giant SoftBank, which counts Didi among its biggest investments. The Japanese firm has paid huge sums for stakes in promising companies over the last few years, but it�s always crossing its fingers that stock market investors will pay even higher valuations so it can turn a profit. But as far as this deal goes, SoftBank will have pocketed a few billion dollars � going some way to validate its high-risk strategy.

For markets: Underestimate retail investors at your peril.
Didi wasn�t the only company to list on Wednesday: Hertz returned to the stock market a little more than a year after the pandemic drove the car rental company to bankruptcy. Hertz became the poster child for supposedly irresponsible behavior back in June 2020, after retail investors started buying shares of the theoretically worthless company for $5 apiece. But they�ve had the last laugh: Hertz�s shares hit nearly $10 on Wednesday.