South Korea's Elice Suffers 32% IPO Collapse, Raising Fresh Questions About AI Infrastructure Valuations

South Korean data center firm Elice suffered a stunning 32% stock price plunge on its debut Tuesday, collapsing from an IPO price of 90,500 won ($68) per share to a closing price around 61,000 won despite extraordinary investor demand—a cautionary moment for the sizzling but increasingly volatile AI infrastructure boom. The Seoul-based AI cloud provider raised approximately 201 billion won (about $151 million USD) in its October 20 listing on Kosdaq, achieving staggering oversubscription rates of 388-408 times from institutional and retail investors alike. Yet within hours of trading, the market punished the stock with one of South Korea's worst opening-day debuts in recent memory, wiping nearly $260 million off Elice's implied valuation—a collapse that rippled across the AI infrastructure sector, dragging down CoreWeave shares 4% and Nebius Group 4.8% the same day.