SPAC

abbreviation or noun

ˈspak 

plural SPACs

: special purpose acquisition company

Wall Street's biggest gold rush of recent years, SPACs are listed shell companies that raise funds to acquire a private company and take it public, allowing targets to sidestep the more onerous paperwork and regulatory checks faced by traditional initial public offerings.

—Katanga Johnson

Although special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) could potentially fill some of this capital-providing role, they tend to focus more on larger businesses.

—Will Rhind

Examples of SPAC in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Lucid, once viewed as a potential rival to Tesla, was founded by a former Tesla engineer and went public via a SPAC deal in 2021, valuing the company at $24 billion. — Ty Roush, Forbes.com, 28 July 2026

The tokenization specialist raised $400 million from its public offering after merging with Cantor Equity Partners II, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. — Camila Grigera Naón, Fortune, 2 July 2026

Although the adoption of humanoid robots within supply chains remains few and far between, one developer is hoping to jumpstart the technology’s expansion by going public via a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, or SPAC, merger. — Glenn Taylor, Footwear News, 25 June 2026

But the performance has been mixed more recently for transportation technology, in particular, which has been a focus for SPAC mergers, including autonomous driving and electrification. — Eric Rosenbaum, CNBC, 10 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1993, in the meaning defined above