A Company You've Never Heard Of Might Have A Bigger IPO Than Facebook

Huge Tech Company You've Probably Never Heard Of Files For MASSIVE IPO
HANGZHOU, CHINA - MARCH 29: A general view of the Alibaba Group headquarters on March 29, 2014 in Hangzhou, China. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has decided to begin its initial public offering (IPO) process in the United States, the company announced recently. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd began in 1999 with the web site Alibaba.com. It's a privately owned China's Hangzhou-based group of Internet-based e-commerce businesses including business-to-business online web portals, online retail and payment services, a shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services. (Photo by Hong Wu/Getty Images)
HANGZHOU, CHINA - MARCH 29: A general view of the Alibaba Group headquarters on March 29, 2014 in Hangzhou, China. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has decided to begin its initial public offering (IPO) process in the United States, the company announced recently. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd began in 1999 with the web site Alibaba.com. It's a privately owned China's Hangzhou-based group of Internet-based e-commerce businesses including business-to-business online web portals, online retail and payment services, a shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services. (Photo by Hong Wu/Getty Images)

(Reuters) - Alibaba Holdings Inc (IPO-ALIB.N) will seek to raise $1 billion in what could become the largest technology debut in history, the Chinese e-commerce and payments giant said in its IPO filing on Tuesday.

Alibaba, which powers four-fifths of all online commerce conducted in the world's second-largest economy, becomes the largest Chinese corporation to have sought a home on U.S. bourses.

Its IPO has spurred levels of excitement in Silicon Valley and Wall Street circles unseen since Facebook Inc's (FB.O) record-breaking $16 billion coming-out party in 2012.

The proposed IPO size in Tuesday's filing is an estimate for the purpose of calculating exchange registration fees. Analysts expect the company to eventually raise an amount surpassing Facebook's, garnering a market value of more than $160 billion.

(Reporting by Edwin Chan)

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