Korean Data-Center Firm Elice Sinks 32% on Debut

On October 20, 2026, Elice, a Seoul-based AI data center operator, began trading on Korea's Kosdaq and fell sharply on its first day. The company priced its IPO at the top of its range at KRW 90,500 per share, raising KRW 201 billion (about $151 million) and reaching a market value just above KRW 1 trillion, making it the largest Kosdaq listing of the year. Retail investors in Korea committed roughly KRW 10.3 trillion (about $7.7 billion) in subscription funds, an oversubscription of more than 400 times. Elice describes itself as a neocloud and is one of the few companies in that category that is already profitable.

The stock briefly rose to about KRW 78,000 after the open, a high that was still 14% below the IPO price, before dropping to a low of KRW 61,400, down 32% from the offer price. At the time of The Wall Street Journal's Chinese-language report, it was trading near KRW 62,900, about 30% below the offer price, with roughly KRW 300 billion in market value erased in under half an hour. A 36Kr report published at 15:34 that day said the shares fell as much as 38% intraday before closing down 32%, which it called the worst first-day performance ever for a large Korean IPO. Bloomberg reported the same day that the stock plunged in its debut but did not give a specific percentage decline.

On the reasons for the drop, 36Kr cited Cailian Press as saying the move highlighted investor concerns over whether the AI industry's heavy spending can be justified by fundamentals. Bloomberg framed it as lingering concern about whether the AI boom can justify the billions of dollars being poured into the sector. The Wall Street Journal's Chinese-language edition said pricing logic for AI data center assets has shifted from growth expectations to capital expenditure, and grouped Elice with earlier cases: Nvidia-backed Australian data center company Firmus cut its offer price by 25% and withdrew its IPO, Nscale's $30 billion funding request was cut by investors by nearly half, and Blackstone-owned AirTrunk postponed a new listing in Singapore. The story currently rests at Elice closing its first trading day down 32%; the materials do not include any response from the company.