Korean brokerages skip Anthropic's $2tn IPO after Mirae's SpaceX miss
Not one of the 22 financial institutions named in Anthropic's US underwriting syndicate is a Korean brokerage, leaving Korean retail investors without a direct route to shares in an AI listing that could be valued at $2 trillion.
The US artificial intelligence company filed its Form S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Oct. 26, setting up what could be one of the year's largest IPOs. Allocations in such offerings are typically distributed through members of the underwriting syndicate, and no domestic firm has publicly disclosed taking part. The Financial Supervisory Service has received no related underwriting filings from local brokerages, according to Token Times.
The caution follows Mirae Asset Securities' experience with SpaceX's IPO. The broker joined that underwriting syndicate but ultimately received no share allocation for its clients, triggering investor complaints and an on-site inspection by the financial regulator into whether the subscription process involved any illegal activity. An official at a local brokerage said the episode had made peers reluctant to pursue similar deals, adding that breaking into major IPOs takes persistence and that Korea will stay on the sidelines unless firms are willing to take risks.
Korean brokerages have long struggled to win roles in major US listings because of limited international underwriting networks. Without syndicate access, Korean investors may have to wait until Anthropic trades on Nasdaq, potentially missing any gain between the offer price and the first market print. Korean asset managers are already preparing ETFs designed to add the shares after listing, though delays in portfolio adjustments could limit exposure to an immediate post-IPO move. US-listed funds holding private Anthropic stock offer earlier exposure, but the company's relatively small weighting in them limits the benefit, and buying shares in its publicly traded shareholders gives only indirect exposure.
Japanese institutions are taking the opposite approach. Mizuho Securities, one of the 22 syndicate members, is leading an offering to raise a record $3.5 billion from Japanese investors through the Anthropic IPO, about 60 percent more than the $2.18 billion raised from Japanese investors during SpaceX's IPO. The gap underlines how far Korean brokerages have fallen behind their Japanese peers in securing access to global listings.
