South Korea’s Elice Group plunged about 32% in its trading debut on Tuesday, closing at 60,500 won versus the 90,500 won IPO price. The Seoul-based AI cloud provider raised 201.1 billion won ($151 million) and was initially valued near $755 million, though the close valued it at roughly 674 billion won. Retail demand had appeared strong before trading: retail investors subscribed more than 400 times the available shares, while institutional orders reached nearly 389 times their allocation.
The debut intensified concerns over AI infrastructure spending and whether heavy investment can generate adequate returns. Elice plans to direct most of its IPO proceeds toward portable modular data centers and related infrastructure. Its first-half revenue tripled to 34 billion won and operating profit reached 10 billion won. Broader AI-linked stocks also came under pressure. CoreWeave fell around 3% in premarket trading, with yields on its unsecured bonds near 15%. JPMorgan defended CoreWeave’s contract returns but expects the company to spend more cash than it generates until 2030. Other planned listings by Australia’s Firmus, Blackstone-backed AirTrunk, and SoftBank’s SB Energy have been canceled or postponed, adding to investor caution. Reports of a possible $45 billion AI cloud deal between Anthropic and Nscale show continued capacity ambitions, but financing costs remain a key question.
South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 3.73% to 5,552.74, with Samsung Electronics down 2.98% and SK Hynix off 4.23%. Oil markets added pressure: Brent crude reached above $111 per barrel before retreating to $109.25, and WTI fell to $101.09. Middle East tensions, including reported attacks on Gulf shipping and Saudi facilities, kept a risk premium in energy prices, while diplomatic efforts involving Iran and Pakistan were being assessed.
Although these developments are centered on equities and AI infrastructure, the pullback in risk sentiment may spill over into digital asset markets, where investors watch financing conditions and broad tech valuations.
