Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) is an American financial technology and exchange company best known for operating the Nasdaq Stock Market, which opened in 1971 as the world's first electronic stock market. Nasdaq, Inc. runs equity, options, and derivatives exchanges in the U.S. and Nordic and Baltic countries, publishes indexes including the Nasdaq Composite and Nasdaq-100, and sells listing, market-data, trading-technology, regulatory-compliance, and anti-financial-crime software to exchanges, banks, brokers, and public companies.
Created by the National Association of Securities Dealers to quote over-the-counter stocks by computer rather than on a trading floor, Nasdaq became the default listing venue for technology companies, including 📝Microsoft, 📝Apple, and 📝Alphabet, and the index most associated with the dot-com boom and bust. It separated from the NASD in 2006, combined with Nordic exchange operator OMX in 2008, and renamed itself Nasdaq, Inc. in 2015. Under CEO Adena Friedman, who took the role in 2017, the company has shifted its revenue mix toward software, most notably through its $10.5 billion acquisition of Adenza in 2023. As part of an "always-on" markets push, the SEC approved trading of tokenized securities on Nasdaq in March 2026, and the exchange plans to begin 23-hour, five-day-a-week equity trading in December 2026. It competes with the New York Stock Exchange for 📝Initial Public Offering (IPO) listings.