Shares in South Korean data centre builder Elice tumble 32% on debut

By the Editorial Team · Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Elice, a South Korean AI-focused data center company, saw its shares plunge 32% on debut to well below its listing price amid a wider sell-off in semiconductor and AI stocks. Despite raising $151 million in the largest Kosdaq IPO this year, investor concerns about valuations and rising financing costs have fueled uncertainty about the sustainability of AI investments.

Shares of South Korean data centre builder Elice dropped sharply on their first day of trading, declining 32 percent to Won61,500, well below their initial listing price of Won90,500. The debut performance reflects growing investor apprehension about valuations in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector amid a broader sell-off in semiconductor stocks in Seoul.

Elice’s shares fell on the Kosdaq index, which focuses on technology companies, while the broader Kospi index also declined 3.7 percent to its lowest level since early April. Major chipmakers SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which together constitute about half of the Kospi index, fell 4.2 percent and 3 percent respectively. Despite the recent downturn, the Kospi remains up nearly 30 percent year to date, though it has lost around 20 percent in the past month.

The downturn in South Korea follows recent volatility in AI-focused stocks globally. US neocloud company CoreWeave has seen its shares more than halve since May, and Nvidia-backed data centre operator Firmus recently abandoned its planned $5 billion initial public offering in Australia. Experts attribute this trend to concerns over rising financing costs, increased competition, and uncertainty about the long-term returns of significant AI investments. Peter Lee, a Citi analyst, noted that higher interest rates are raising doubts about the sustainability of AI investments.

Elice raised approximately Won201 billion ($151 million) after pricing its shares at the top of its indicative range, marking the largest initial public offering on the Kosdaq this year. The offering was met with heavy demand, particularly from retail investors, with subscription deposits exceeding Won10 trillion—more than 400 times oversubscribed on the retail portion alone. However, many retail investors have expressed anxiety over their paper losses, with some commenting on social media about their worries over whether to hold or sell their shares.

Founded in 2015 by three doctoral students from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Elice initially operated as a coding education platform before pivoting toward AI cloud infrastructure. The company now provides servers, liquid-cooled chips, cloud computing, networking infrastructure, and software. It has also developed a modular data centre platform designed to accelerate construction timelines. One of its key technological features is liquid-cooling, intended to support clusters of high-performance AI chips.

In response to the market reaction, Elice highlighted a tripling of its revenue in the first half of the year to Won34.4 billion, aiming to reassure investors about its financial prospects amid the sector's broader challenges.

This article was reported by synthesizing coverage from multiple independent news outlets to present a balanced, unbiased account. Read about our editorial standards. Spotted an error? Let us know.