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Arm CEO Rene Haas and executives cheer, as Softbank's Arm, chip design firm, holds an initial public offering (IPO) at Nasdaq Market site in New York. Image Credit: REUTERS

New York: Arm Holdings’ highly-anticipated trading debut caught the attention of retail traders.

The chip designer garnered the most buy orders on Fidelity’s trading platform Thursday, with upward of 20,000 purchase orders, according to the brokerage’s website. It easily outpaced demand for retail favorites like Tesla and Nvidia. Arm priced its IPO at $51 a share before opening at $56.10 just after noon in New York. The stock surged into the close, ending the session 25 per cent higher than the IPO price.

The Fidelity data shows the aggregate number of orders entered by Fidelity Brokerage Services self-directed retail customers. The information comes with a warning that the firm “strongly encourages each investor to review and research their investments to ensure they align with the investor’s personal investment objectives and risk profile.”

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Arm CEO Rene Haas participates in the opening bell ceremony, as Softbank's Arm, chip design firm, holds an initial public offering (IPO) at Nasdaq Market site in New York.

Arm’s ticker was among those trending on retail trader chatroom Stocktwits, another signal that the company was catching on with individual investors.

The surge in retail demand underscores how small traders are clamoring to get a piece of potential winners in the artificial intelligence frenzy. With the IPO market all but shut over the past two years, Arm offered the first crack at a newly public tech company and paved the way for more deals in the coming weeks.

Online grocery-delivery firm Instacart and marketing and data automation provider Klaviyo are set to price their IPOs next week. SoFi Technologies is among the banks underwriting Instacart’s IPO with plans to offer shares to individual investors that use its platform. The success of the three companies will be closely watched with Vietnam-based internet startup VNG and footwear maker Birkenstock Holding also among those that have also filed to go public.