According to Financial Times, Anthropic is preparing to complete an IPO of $2 trillion or more in October 2026, which would be the largest IPO in history.
This is likely to clearly benefit early investors in the company such as SK Telecom which had a 0.3% stake in Anthropic at the end of 2025.
Given the fact that Anthropic is likely to complete its IPO sometime in October 2026, the further alpha on SK Telecom could take place in the next 1-2 months.
According to Financial Times, Anthropic is preparing to complete an IPO of $2 trillion or more in October 2026, which would be the largest IPO in history. This valuation would be nearly 150% higher than its previous private market valuation of about $800 billion in 2Q26.
This is likely to clearly benefit early investors in the company such as SK Telecom which had a 0.3% stake in Anthropic at the end of 2025.If we assume SK Telecom’s stake in Anthropic declines to 0.2% post IPO, at a valuation of $2 trillion for Anthropics, SK Telecom’s stake would be worth $4 billion (5.7 trillion won). This would represent 29% of SK Telecom’s current market cap.
SK Telecom (SKM US)‘s (ADR) share price is up nearly 5% today to $36.7 per share, driven by the positive news about the upcoming IPO of Anthropic at $2 trillion valuation plus.
SK Telecom’s share price has risen by more than 85% since the beginning of the year and its investment in Anthropic has played a major role in driving higher valuation of the company. SK Telecom (SKM US)‘s share price rose to as high as $46 per share on 2 June 2026 but since has declined nearly 20%.
I think the market has been incorporating some of the positive catalyst related to the Anthropic IPO but it probably estimated the value of Anthropic IPO to be about $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion.
Now that the number has risen materially higher ($2 trillion or more), this is likely to positively impact SK Telecom’s share price once again. I also think most of the upside related to SK Telecom’s investment in Anthropic will likely take place before Anthropic completes the IPO.
Given the fact that Anthropic is likely to complete its IPO sometime in October 2026, the further alpha on SK Telecom could take place in the next 1-2 months. This would be similar to how the key beneficiaries of the SpaceX (SPCX US) IPO impacted Korean stocks (including Mirae Asset Securities (006800 KS)).
Most of the upside (related to the beneficiaries of the SpaceX IPO) occurred prior to the completion of the IPO itself (for about a period of 6-9 months). About a month prior to the SpaceX IPO, many investors started to take profits on the beneficiaries of the SpaceX IPO in Korea and after the SpaceX IPO was completed, the selling accelerated.
Nonetheless, unlike the SpaceX IPO (where there were more than a dozen companies in Korea that were beneficiaries), there are only a few companies in Korea that are considered beneficiaries of the Anthropic IPO. SK Telecom stands out as the most prominent Korean investor in the company.
Other Korean companies that have invested in Anthropic include Samsung Electronics (005930 KS), SK Hynix (000660 KS), and Naver Corp (035420 KS). However, the investments that these companies have made as a percentage of their market caps are much lower.
In addition to the four companies above, there are other companies including LS Electric, Hyosung Industrial, and HD Hyundai Electric that could also be beneficiaries.
LS Electric (010120 KS)- AI expansion triggers immense electricity demands from training and inference clusters, driving data-centre power consumption. This trend boosts infrastructure firms like LS Electric (010120 KS), which provides vital substations, transformers, and power management systems. Anthropic’s IPO could signal early-stage infrastructure spending, reinforcing sustained investor commitment to electrical grid modernization.
HD Hyundai Electric (267260 KS) - HD Hyundai Electric represents another major beneficiary of AI-related power infrastructure spending. Anthropic’s growth implies additional hyperscale data-center construction globally. These facilities require transformers, switchgear, and grid modernization investments.
SK Telecom share price trend (1 year) (Source: Google Finance)
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