South Korean dealers work in front of monitors at the Hana Bank in Seoul on Friday. The benchmark South Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or KOSPI, topped the 5,800-point mark for the first time to close at an all-time high of 5,803.53, rising 131.28 points, or 2.31%. Photo by Jeon-Heon-kyun/EPA
SEOUL, Feb. 20 (UPI) — South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index continues to set records, driven by strong corporate performances, including semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
The index more than doubled over the past year to surpass 5,800 points Friday. Also fueling the bullish rally are Mirae Asset Securities and SK Telecom, which have invested in promising U.S. firms expected to list in the near future.
The share price of Mirae Asset Securities, South Korea’s leading brokerage house, more than tripled this year, buoyed by strong earnings. It reported $1.1 billion in net profit for 2025, up 72% from a year earlier.
In addition, observers point out the company’s investment in SpaceX, which is expected to go public this summer with a market capitalization of around $1.25 trillion, has also underpinned its stock.
In 2022 and 2023, Mirae Asset Group reportedly channeled $278 million into SpaceX, and roughly half of that came from Mirae Asset Securities, although It does not confirm the detailed figures. A listing could deliver significant windfalls for the brokerage.
Yuanta Securities analyst Woo Do-hung said that Mirae Asset Securities is likely to remain strong through SpaceX’s IPO.
SpaceX is the world’s top private aerospace manufacturer, while xAI is an artificial intelligence startup founded by Elon Musk. Earlier this month, the former acquired the latter in an all-stock deal.
“Following its merger with xAI, SpaceX’s current valuation is estimated at around $1 trillion,” Woo said in a report, expecting the figure to rise to as much as $1.5 trillion after listing, further supporting Mirae Asset Securities on the Seoul bourse.
Reflecting confidence in its long-term upside potential, Mirae Asset Securities also plans to keep holding stakes in innovative companies like SpaceX before they go public.
“We are not yet considering an exit strategy, as our investments in innovative companies remain unlisted,” CFO Lee Kang-hyuk told a conference call earlier this month.
“We aim to pursue exits at the most optimal timing and then reinvest the recovered funds into high-growth assets or use them for M&A, thus establishing a stable virtuous cycle,” he added.
Another beneficiary in the Korean stock market is SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile carrier, which made a strategic equity investment of $100 million in Anthropic in mid-2023 through its venture arm.
Known for its Claude family of artificial intelligence models, Anthropic is also projected to go public in the coming years.
With its valuation estimated at about $380 billion, the value of SK Telecom’s stake has jumped several-fold to more than $2 billion, or nearly 20% of the company’s market capitalization.
The successful investment has bolstered its share price, which surged over 50% this year.
“The value of SK Telecom’s stake in Anthropic is estimated at around $2.1 billion,” Korea Investment & Securities analyst Kim Jeong-chan said in a report. “It has lifted SK Telecom’s valuation.”
He expected that AI-related revenue, including AI data centers and AI transformation, could put the firm on track to approach $1.4 billion in 2026 operating profit from $740 million last year.
Against this backdrop, industry watchers note that an increasing number of Korean corporations are likely to pursue long-term investments in promising startups from the advanced markets.
“As predicting the future has become increasingly difficult, companies are more often building portfolios of smaller investments rather than making large bets on a handful of prominent firms,” economic commentator Kim Kyeong-joon, formerly vice chairman at Deloitte Consulting Korea, told UPI.
“In the past, they might have made major investments in around five companies, but now it’s common to spread smaller investments across 30 firms. Even if only a few succeed, that is considered a success,” he said.
Kim noted that such a trend would accelerate across the country’s corporations with the advent of the AI era, when the future becomes even more challenging.