Elice IPO debut sinks 32% as neocloud doubts spread

The Elice IPO debut turned sour on Tuesday, Oct. 20, as shares of the Seoul-based AI cloud provider fell as much as 32% on South Korea's Kosdaq. The company had priced its offering at 90,500 won, the top of its range, raising about 201.1 billion won ($151 million) in the market's biggest listing of 2026.

What happened

Selling hit from the open. By 9:30 a.m. local time the stock traded at 63,000 won, down 30.39% from the offer price, Seoul Economic Daily reported, and it touched an intraday low near 61,000 won. A pre-listing market value of about 1.0054 trillion won shrank to roughly 700 billion won.

Demand had looked overwhelming. The retail tranche, offered on Oct. 7 and 8, was subscribed about 408 times and drew more than 10 trillion won in deposits. In the institutional book-build, 2,367 domestic and foreign investors took part, and the deal was 388.84 times covered.

Elice began in 2015 as a coding education platform founded by three KAIST doctoral students and later moved into GPU cloud services, servers and modular, liquid-cooled data centers. First-half revenue rose 200% to 34.4 billion won, and operating profit reached 10.3 billion won, according to its prospectus. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization jumped more than elevenfold to 23.2 billion won.

For the full year 2025, Elice reported revenue of 39.5 billion won and an operating profit of 5.2 billion won on a consolidated basis. Its pitch to investors rests on combining its own GPU cloud with modular data centers that use high-density power systems and advanced liquid cooling, designed for large AI chip clusters.

Why it matters

The slump shows how quickly sentiment toward so-called neoclouds has turned. Albert Yong of Petra Capital Management said attitudes toward AI infrastructure had weakened, especially in the United States, and had often been disconnected from fundamentals. The Elice IPO debut lands after Firmus Grid canceled a Sydney listing and AirTrunk delayed a planned REIT offering, people familiar with the matter said.

U.S. comparisons weigh on the group. CoreWeave stock is down by more than half from its May high, and its credit default swaps trade at distressed levels. Bloomberg News has reported investor resistance to the valuation Nscale is seeking in its IPO. Not every Korean deal is struggling: SK Hynix has just completed the biggest U.S. share sale ever by a foreign company.

Local markets offered no cushion. The Kospi fell 2.31% on Tuesday, CNBC reported, extending the pressure described in our Asian chip selloff report, even after a rebound on Wall Street.

What's next

Some investors see the drop as overdone. Kim Do-joon of Zian Investment Management said Elice's finances differ from CoreWeave's and it already earns an operating profit, though he questioned whether margins can hold. Analyst Douglas Kim projected an 83% sales jump this year and an operating margin of about 33%.

Elice plans to spend the proceeds on new AI data centers in South Korea and on expansion in the United States, Japan and Singapore. Filings and price-stabilization disclosures will appear on the Korea Exchange disclosure system. After this Elice IPO debut, bankers lining up other AI infrastructure listings in Asia may have to rethink pricing.