News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News: As Anthropic prepares for an IPO, its annualized revenue run rate had surpassed $65 billion (approximately 92 trillion KRW) as of the end of July, representing a more than sevenfold increase from the end of last year. The figure was disclosed in regular operating data reports shared with major investors.Anthropic's full-year 2025 revenue has already exceeded $9 billion, reaching $47 billion in May this year. Preliminary second-quarter revenue surpassed $11.5 billion, compared to $787 million in the same period last year—a roughly 15-fold increase. Adjusted operating profit is expected to turn profitable.Anthropic has hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as lead underwriters for its IPO, with JPMorgan also participating in the transaction. Following its latest funding round, the company is valued at $965 billion, one of the highest valuations among private companies. (ETNews SW)
Odaily News: South Korean enterprise-grade AI data infrastructure company GraphAI has announced the completion of a 17 billion KRW (approximately $12 million) Series A funding round, led by K2 Investment Partners, with participation from A-Ventures and Jiyu Investment, as well as Quad Ventures, Kiwoom Investment, and We Ventures, who previously participated in the Pre-A round. To date, the company's cumulative funding has reached 20.6 billion KRW (approximately $14.7 million).Founded in 2022 by Min-Soo Kim, a professor at KAIST's School of Computing, GraphAI aims to provide next-generation data infrastructure for enterprise AI applications by integrating graph database, vector database, and relational database capabilities. Its Akasic platform offers an integrated solution covering enterprise data connectivity, ingestion, transformation, AI inference, and an intelligent agent (Agentic AI) execution environment. (Thelec)
Odaily News: Data released today by the Korea Exchange shows that heavyweight semiconductor stocks have recently pulled back, with capital beginning to rotate toward non-semiconductor sectors. From August 3 to 7, Samsung Electronics fell 12.00%, SK Hynix dropped 17.23%, and the KOSPI index declined 5.10% over the same period; however, sectors such as metals and machinery equipment rose against the trend.Currently, the combined market capitalization of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as a share of the KOSPI has fallen from 58.9% on June 25 to 46.3% on August 7. Meanwhile, the KOSPI's net profit forecast for this year, excluding these two companies, has been revised upward from 219.2 trillion KRW last week to 222.3 trillion KRW, with improving market earnings further supporting the valuation recovery of non-semiconductor sectors. KB Securities researcher Kim Min-kyu stated that the current "semiconductor pause, other sectors rising" pattern is closer to previously overlooked industries being revalued while the leading sector takes a breather, rather than a simple broad-based expansion of the market rally. (FNNews)
Odaily News: SK Hynix's stock price has recently seen a pullback. On August 3, the stock fell 8.79%. Although it rebounded slightly by 0.64% and 5.77% on August 4 and 5 respectively, it plunged another 10.37% on August 6, closing at 1.495 million KRW; on August 7, it dropped a further 4.88%, closing at 1.422 million KRW.Against the backdrop of heightened market volatility, SK Group released an advertisement quoting founder Choi Jong-gun’s famous saying: "Despair and hope are two sides of the same coin; you can turn despair into hope as easily as flipping your palm," and adapted it to: "Unease and anticipation in the AI era are also two sides of the same coin; you can turn unease into anticipation," thereby conveying confidence in the long-term development of the AI industry.Securities institutions believe that short-term stock price fluctuations have not changed SK Hynix's fundamentals, and the market should focus on its HBM4 technology leadership and the earnings stability brought by long-term supply agreements (LTAs). Specifically:1. Hyundai Motor Securities expects SK Hynix's DRAM and NAND bit growth to reach 9.7% and 1.5% respectively in the third quarter. As HBM4 sales contributions expand, even with a higher proportion of LTAs, DRAM average selling prices (ASP) are still expected to rise 19.9% quarter-over-quarter. Companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic are advancing plans to build their own hyperscale AI data centers and intend to raise funds for related construction through IPOs. Even if some large tech companies adjust capital expenditures (Capex) in the future, this could be offset by demand from other AI infrastructure. Additionally, regarding competitive concerns over China's CXMT, given the U.S. continued tightening of semiconductor equipment export restrictions, as well as Micron's expansion of domestic U.S. investment, the likelihood of major companies like Apple adopting Chinese memory chips is relatively low.2. SK Securities is also bullish on SK Hynix's competitive advantages, believing that with its leading position in HBM, partnerships with major North American GPU companies, and AI-driven LTA demand, SK Hynix's market position remains solid. Currently, the HBM supply-demand fulfillment rate is below 70%, and the core value of LTAs lies in ensuring profit sustainability and earnings stability through a "mutual binding structure" between customers and suppliers. With value-reassessment initiatives such as an ADR listing progressing, along with dividend income from the sale of SPC assets related to Kioxia, the company's goal of achieving net cash of 100 trillion KRW may be reached earlier than expected. As shareholder return policies gradually become clearer, this will help the market re-evaluate the value of the LTA model and drive a further re-rating of SK Hynix. (Daum)
Odaily News, Citrini analyst jukan posted on X platform that Korean media reports indicate SK hynix subsidiary Solidigm is seeking pre-IPO funding, potentially in preparation for a Nasdaq listing. Reports say the company's target valuation in this funding round is 50 trillion KRW. Solidigm is a U.S. subsidiary established by SK hynix in 2021 to take over Intel's NAND flash and SSD business, which SK hynix agreed to acquire for approximately 10 trillion KRW in 2020.
According to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association, driven by a significant downturn in the stock market, on-exchange credit leverage has entered a phase of concentrated deleveraging. The cumulative forced liquidation amount for July has already reached 344.2 billion KRW, with a single-day liquidation volume of 142.2 billion KRW on July 9 alone. Due to a two-trading-day delay in the reporting of liquidation data, the clearing pressure triggered by the sharp drop in the KOSPI on the 13th has not yet been fully reflected in the statistics, leading market forecasts to anticipate a further increase in subsequent liquidation volumes.On July 13, the Korean stock market experienced severe volatility, with the KOSPI closing down 8.95% and triggering both the Sidecar selling suspension mechanism and a Level 1 circuit breaker during the session. The semiconductor sector led the decline, with SK Hynix falling 15.37%, marking its largest single-day drop in history, while Samsung Electronics closed down 10.7%. Currently, the margin balances and credit financing balances of Korean retail investors continue to shrink, with the market entrenched in a negative deleveraging cycle of "falling stock prices → forced liquidation → further decline in stock prices." (WSJ)
According to CryptoSlate, South Korean Bitcoin treasury company Bitplanet has signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with Nasdaq-listed company Antalpha and related partners, planning to introduce 15 billion KRW worth of Bitcoin mining equipment and launch full operations within the month. This move signifies that Bitplanet is shifting from a reserve model of simply purchasing Bitcoin through financing to continuously generating Bitcoin revenue through mining.
According to Chosun, Korean-listed IT service provider ITCEN Global announced raising KRW 40 billion (approximately USD 3 million) through the issuance of convertible bonds. The funding round was fully subscribed by ITC Holdings, which is wholly owned by the KCGI Innovation Growth ESG Fund. The proceeds will be used to expand new businesses, including Web3 and security token offerings (STOs). The company stated that if South Korea’s digital asset regulatory framework is finalized in the second half of the year, these initiatives are expected to accelerate.
According to The Asia Business Daily, DS Investment & Securities issued a research report lowering NAVER’s target price from its previous level to 300,000 KRW, while maintaining a “Buy” rating. Analyst Choi Seung-ho noted that the downward revision is primarily driven by two factors: first, NAVER’s operating profit margin for this year is projected to decline from 18.3% to 17.6%, due to rising advertising and e-commerce marketing expenses as well as depreciation costs; second, delayed legislative progress on cryptocurrency-related regulations is directly affecting the proposed merger between NAVER Financial and Dunamu, raising the possibility of further postponement beyond the originally scheduled completion in September. Previously, DS Securities had assigned a valuation of 15 trillion KRW to NAVER’s cryptocurrency business within its Sum-of-the-Parts (SOTP) valuation; this portion has now been removed from the updated report. Choi Seung-ho added that the e-commerce business remains NAVER’s core growth engine going forward, with annual e-commerce sales expected to reach approximately 2.7 trillion KRW.