AI IPO valuations put South Korean listing plans under pressure

Financial News reported that valuations of global AI companies pursuing IPOs, including OpenAI and Anthropic, were being reassessed, making listing plans more complicated for South Korean AI companies.[1] It identified Upstage, Wrtn and Furiosa AI as Korean firms preparing to go public.[1] The article said investors are looking beyond technological strength and growth potential to examine revenue, profitability and future growth rates.[1] For these candidates, the stated test is whether technological competitiveness can be matched by concrete revenue-generating potential.[1]

Anthropic’s valuation was lowered at an IPO investor briefing in San Francisco on October 14, local time, to about $1.5 trillion—25% below the previous expectation of $2 trillion.[1] The company reported third-quarter revenue of $16.8 billion, up 45% from the previous quarter, and adjusted operating profits for two consecutive quarters.[1] Financial News linked the lower valuation expectations to revenue growth slowing from more than 100% in the previous quarter.[1] The article also said the companies still had a long way to go before achieving profitability.[1]

Upstage reported 24.8 billion won in revenue and a 30.5 billion won operating loss last year.[1] Financial News said its influence in the enterprise AI market was growing, but its operating loss still exceeded revenue.[1] The article said its valuation would depend partly on securing corporate customers and expanding services in ways that produce stable profits.[1] Wrtn, by contrast, attracted 100 billion won in investment last August at a valuation of at least 1 trillion won, while its revenue rose to 47.1 billion won last year from 3.1 billion won the year before.[1] The article said Wrtn still needed to improve profitability while sustaining overseas growth, including through its North American AI entertainment platform OOC.[1]

Furiosa AI reported 5.7 billion won in revenue and a 62.5 billion won operating loss last year.[1] It began mass production of its second-generation AI inference accelerator, RGND, in January, and investors were watching whether wider customer supply would improve results.[1] CNBC reported that South Korean AI services firm Elice Group’s shares fell 30% in its market debut, despite institutional orders amounting to 388.84 times the shares offered.[3] Elice said first-half revenue tripled to 34 billion won and it swung to a 10 billion won operating profit.[3] CNBC also reported investor concerns about AI spending, excess computing capacity and uncertain demand.[3][4]