Elice Group raised 201 billion won ($151 million) in the KOSDAQs biggest initial public offering (IPO) this year. Its shares then sank over 30% below the IPO price on Tuesday, their first day of trading.
The slide came weeks before Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI models, plans to go public in November.
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Korean AI Cloud Firm Elice Plunges 30% in Its KOSDAQ Debut
Analysts noted that Elice set its IPO price on October 6, before the latest selloff in AI stocks. According to a filing, institutions had ordered 388 times the shares on offer.
Its numbers had improved before the listing. First-half revenue tripled to 34 billion won, and Elice swung to a 10 billion won operating profit.
Those results did not shield the stock from a broader retreat in AI sentiment. The KOSPI has fallen over 21% in the past month. The index dropped 3.5% the same morning, cutting its 2026 gain to 31%.
Elices stock fell as much as 32% to 61,400 won in early trading, according to Bloomberg. Part of that unease is about demand itself.
Kiwoom Securities analyst Kim Hak-joon told Reuters that no one knows how large AI demand will become. He added that even todays demand is hard to estimate.
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This Summers AI Debuts Went the Other Way
That caution contrasts with Chinas AI-linked listings a few months ago. Memory chipmaker CXMT rose about 470% in its Shanghai debut on July 27, after raising $8.6 billion.
Robot maker Unitree opened 629% above its IPO price on August 19.
The selloff has since reached those winners. CXMT shares fell 6.5% on Monday as the US chip rout spread to Asia. It is now down 18% since its debut.
CXMT Stock Performance. Source: Google FinanceWhat Elice‘s Slide Means for Anthropic’s November IPO
Ke Yan, head of research at Singapore-based Shenton Research, framed the shift around those paying clients.
“Elice‘s debut shows the AI infrastructure trade has moved from ’build at any cost‘ to ’who is paying and for how long,” he said. “Until the AI labs that rent … capacity show they can fund their compute commitments, new listings across the region will likely be priced in that risk premium.”
Anthropic is among the largest AI labs preparing to list. It has committed at least $518 billion to cloud and computing capacity over a decade.
Its valuation talk has already slipped. Some investors at its October 14 investor day discussed $1.5 trillion. Earlier expectations sat near $2 trillion, before third-quarter revenue growth slowed to 45%.
A weak debut could reach beyond Anthropic. A cool reception could pressure the wider AI market, where OpenAI is expected to list next year.
Several well-known investors have already raised bubble warnings this month. Paul Tudor Jones warned of a difficult 2027 for US stocks. He pointed to the wave of new shares coming from major AI companies.
Michael Burry has aimed his warning at Anthropic directly. He called its valuation a bubble, noting it could buy 78 S&P 500 companies. Ray Dalio has also said the AI bubble is close to bursting.
Anthropic‘s November pricing will show whether Ke Yan’s risk premium reaches the labs buying compute.