[Edaily Reporter Kwon Oh Seok ] The KOSPI closed lower on the 3rd amid a decline in investor sentiment toward artificial intelligence (AI). With the U.S. midterm elections taking place today (local time), caution also played a role, leading to a massive outflow of foreign capital from the domestic stock market. Fortunately, the KOSDAQ managed to hold above the 700-point mark.
Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at DaishinSecurities, explained, “The market showed weakness as AI investment sentiment cooled due to news of consecutive corporate bond issuances by U.S. Big Tech companies and Anthropic’s financial burdens.”
In fact, Oracle announced plans to raise a total of $20 billion (approximately 27 trillion Hanwha won) — $10 billion each through common stock and corporate bonds — to expand its AI infrastructure. The stock issuance will dilute existing shareholders’ stakes, while the debt issuance will entail future interest burdens. Other tech companies also continued to raise funds. Meta is gauging investor demand while considering the issuance of corporate bonds worth at least $20 billion. Alphabet raised 6 billion euros (approximately 9.5 trillion won) through its second euro-denominated bond issuance this year.
In particular, the financial results disclosed by Anthropic the previous day through an amended preliminary registration statement (Form S-1) highlighted both growth and cost pressures. Anthropic’s third-quarter revenue was approximately $17 billion (about 23 trillion won), more than 12 times that of the same period last year. However, total committed expenditures under purchase agreements and lease contracts amounted to approximately $895.4 billion (about 1,201 trillion won), most of which was related to computing and infrastructure. While these are not immediate expenses, they represent the scale of funding required for future business expansion.
The analyst added, “The successive corporate bond issuances by Big Tech companies have fueled concerns about AI funding and weakened investor sentiment across the entire AI value chain.” Furthermore, investor sentiment contracted due to policy uncertainty and caution stemming from the results of the U.S. midterm elections.
As a result, major domestic semiconductor stocks also fell in tandem. During regular trading that day, SamsungElectronics(005930)traded at 219,500 won, down 9,500 won (4.15%) from the previous trading day, while SK hynix(000660)traded at 1,398,000 won, down 74,000 won (5.03%).
Meanwhile, the KOSDAQ index opened at 723.92, down 10.44 points (1.42%) from the previous trading day, and closed at 704.39, down 29.97 points (4.08%). During the KOSDAQ regular trading session that day, retail investors were the only net buyers, purchasing 319.7 billion won worth of stocks, while foreign and institutional investors were net sellers of 74.7 billion won and 234.5 billion won, respectively. By trading type, combined arbitrage and non-arbitrage trades showed a net selling volume of 140.7 billion won.
