Investing.com -- Shares in Arm opened at $56.10 in New York, about 10% above the chip designer's initial public offering of $51.

The IPO price was already at the top end of Arm's indicated range, and secured the British company a valuation of $54.5 billion.

The listing -- the largest since electric-truck maker Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN)'s roughly $12B debut in 2021 -- was fueled by strong demand that saw the stock heavily oversubscribed. Many of Arm's biggest clients, including Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), have already signed up to be cornerstone investors.

The IPO's value is lower than the $64 billion Arm-owner SoftBank (TYO:9984) spent last month to acquire the 25% stake in the business it did not already own. However, it is still more than SoftBank's $40 billion sale of Arm to Nvidia that was scuttled in 2022 following regulatory opposition.

Arm's flotation will likely serve as a bellwether for the recently dormant IPO market, which has fallen relatively silent due to economic uncertainty and elevated interest rates.