Korean and Japanese stocks jump on the Anthropic prospectus. Is it time to buy?

The prospectus filed by Anthropic, the developer of Claude, has revived investor interest in chip stocks in South Korea and Japan, Bloomberg reports. South Korea’s benchmark Kospi rose as much as 4.9% in Tuesday trading, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained as much as 2.4%. Shares of memory chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix climbed more than 4% each. Chip stocks were mixed in Taiwan and China.

Kospi 200 futures surged more than 5%, prompting the Korea Exchange to temporarily suspend program buy orders, Financial News reports. Nasdaq futures also advanced, gaining 0.4% early Tuesday after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumped 2.8% on Monday, according to Reuters.

Anthropic’s prospectus for what could be the largest IPO in history has eased investor concerns about the industry’s ability to fund the AI infrastructure buildout amid soaring debt, Bloomberg writes. The company detailed the billions of dollars in annual revenue its products can generate and the resources it has to pay for the chips and equipment it needs. “With more than $112 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of June, even before any potential IPO proceeds, Anthropic appears to have considerable financial capacity to support its expansion,” Tiger Brokers strategist James Ooi told Bloomberg.

Goldman Sachs believes Korean stocks are deeply undervalued following the selloff. Current valuations of Korean memory chipmakers imply a 65% decline in their 2027 earnings, the bank estimates. “The market is pricing an overly negative fundamental outlook,” Goldman strategists wrote in a note. The bank lowered its 12-month target for the Kospi from 12,000 to 9,000 points but maintained its recommendation to buy Korean stocks. Even the reduced target is 65% above the Kospi’s close on Monday.

Japanese investment bank Nomura shares that view. Concerns about slowing growth in the AI industry are overstated in some respects, according to Nomura report on the global memory market that Seoul Economic Daily wrote up on October 20. The bank expects the memory chip shortage to persist through the end of 2028 as data center construction continues apace. Nomura has “buy” ratings on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix at target prices implying 214% and 268% upside, respectively, from Monday’s closing prices.

SK Hynix and Alphabet will report quarterly results on Wednesday, followed by Samsung and Amazon on Thursday. The financials will shed light on the health of the AI rally, which has struggled to recover from the summer selloff. The Kospi has lost more than 35% from its June peak, while net foreign selling of Korean stocks has exceeded $150 billion this year, Bloomberg reports.

“The key question is whether this week’s results can restore confidence in the durability of AI-related demand,” Jung In Yun, CEO of Fibonacci Asset Management Global, told Bloomberg. “For the recovery to last, we need reassuring earnings guidance and sustained foreign buying.”

Nomura warned that its memory demand outlook would need to be reassessed if data center investment plans were repeatedly scaled back or even fully funded projects faced widespread delays.