Elice’s disappointing IPO sparks debate on AI valuations

Elice Group did everything a hot IPO candidate is supposed to do. It drew massive oversubscription, priced its shares at 90,500 won, and raised 201.1 billion won, or approximately $151 million.

Then trading opened on the Kosdaq on October 20, 2026. The shares fell about 32% by the close, and the AI trade suddenly looked a lot less like a sure thing.

A blowout order book, then a cold open

The demand numbers before listing were striking. Retail subscriptions came in roughly 400 to 408 times oversubscribed, and institutional bookbuilding was oversubscribed 389 times.

The stock dropped as much as 38% during the session before recovering slightly. It finished the day in the neighborhood of 60,500 to 61,500 won, down roughly 32% from the offer price.

After the slide, the company’s market valuation sat at approximately 674 billion won. That makes it one of the worst opening-day showings for a large Korean IPO in recent years.

The fundamentals were not the problem

For the first half of 2026, the company reported that revenue tripled to 34.4 billion won. It also posted an operating profit of 10.3 billion won over the same period.

Elice debuted amid continued selling pressure on peers like CoreWeave, the US-listed AI cloud provider. Other comparable IPOs have also faced delays.

Why the AI infrastructure business makes investors nervous

AI infrastructure firms supply the computing horsepower that model developers and enterprises need. They also carry heavy exposure if that wave flattens. Data centers require large upfront spending, and the payoff depends on customers continuing to need ever more capacity at healthy prices.

What this means for AI listings and investors

For investors, the episode exposes a gap between subscription demand and real conviction. Order books swollen hundreds of times over can reflect allocation games, since participants often bid far more than they want, expecting to be scaled back. When those bidders receive their shares and the macro tone turns, many head for the exit at once. Elice’s intraday low, down as much as 38%, looks a lot like that dynamic playing out.

Tripling revenue and a positive operating profit sit uncomfortably next to a 32% first-day drop. Elice is a Korean company listed on the Kosdaq, but the pressure it faced was tied to sentiment around names like CoreWeave and the wider AI build-out, suggesting the valuation debate is not confined to one market or one company.