Yesterday, the New York Stock Exchange opened its trading session to Figma Inc and declared, “Design is going public today,”. Twenty years ago, design was often viewed as surface-level polish. A decade ago, it was described as “how it works.” In 2025, it was said by Field that design is now how companies win or lose. And today “Design is everyone’s business.” The San Francisco-based company had just pulled off one of the most remarkable IPO debuts in recent memory. Shares opened at $85, more than two and a half times its $33 offering price, and closed at $115.50. With a fully diluted valuation north of $65 billion, the market gave a clear verdict: staying independent was the right move.
Three years ago, Figma was preparing to sell itself to Adobe for $20 billion. That deal
