Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group plans to go public on a U.S. stock exchange, possibly raising up to $15 billion in the biggest initial public offering since Facebook.

The announcement on Sunday confirming plans for a US share sale ended months of speculation over where the company would list after talks for an initial public offering in Hong Kong fell apart last year.

Alibaba is one of the world’s biggest internet companies and says more than $150bn worth of merchandise changes hands on its online platforms each year, more than Amazon and eBay combined.

The company began as a service to link Chinese suppliers with retailers abroad and has branched out into retail e-commerce. It is little known abroad but has launched two consumer-oriented services in the United States.

“Alibaba Group has decided to commence the process of an initial public offering in the United States,” the company said in a statement. “This will make us a more global company and enhance the company’s transparency, as well as allow the company to continue to pursue our long-term vision and ideals.”

It gave no details of the timing or size of the initial public offering or on which exchange it would take place.

Analysts have estimated that an Alibaba IPO could raise up to $15bn and value the company at more than $100bn. Facebook’s IPO in June last year raised $16bn and at the time valued the company at more than $100bn.

Alibaba is one of a number of Chinese internet heavyweights planning to cash in with IPOs amid rapid growth. The announcement comes two days after Chinese internet company Sina’s Weibo microblog unit filed plans for a possible share sale in the US.

Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, indicates it plans to raise $500m. Another Chinese online retailing giant, JD.com, filed in January for a U.S. stock listing.