A fascinating divergence occurred with SK Telecom's stock, where its U.S. and Korean shares moved in completely opposite directions.
On March 4, 2026, amid a historic rout where the Korean KOSPI index plunged about 12%, SK Telecom's domestic shares plummeted over 10%. However, its U.S.-listed American Depositary Receipts (ADR) surged by nearly 6%. The catalyst was a widely shared social media post that refocused U.S. investors' attention squarely on the immense value of SKT’s stake in the AI giant, Anthropic.
This created two entirely different narratives for the same company. In Korea, the story was one of panic-selling driven by a severe market crash and a weakening currency. But in the United States, a 'sum-of-the-parts' narrative took hold. Investors began to view the SKT ADR not as a Korean telecom company, but as a cleaner, more direct way to invest in Anthropic's explosive growth, effectively insulated from the turmoil in the Korean market. The perceived value of this AI 'option' completely overshadowed the company's core business and the macroeconomic headwinds.
This sharp divergence didn't happen in a vacuum. The stage was set by several preceding factors. First, recent news of Anthropic raising funds at increasingly high valuations had already primed investors to view SKT as a proxy for the AI boom. Second, credible media reports from outlets like CNBC and Reuters had provided concrete anchors for these valuations by documenting Anthropic’s incredible ARR (Annualized Recurring Revenue) growth, from $3 billion to targets of over $20 billion. Third, SKT's own strategic pivot towards becoming an 'AI company,' reinforced by major announcements at events like MWC Barcelona, lent credibility to the idea that its Anthropic investment was a core part of its future, not just a passive financial holding.
Ultimately, this event clearly demonstrates how a powerful narrative can cause a stock's price to decouple from its home market's reality, especially when amplified by social media during a crisis.
- ADR (American Depositary Receipt): A certificate issued by a U.S. bank representing a specified number of shares in a foreign stock. It allows U.S. investors to buy shares in foreign companies without the complexities of cross-border transactions.
- Sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) valuation: A method of valuing a company by treating each of its business segments as a separate entity. The value of each division is calculated independently and then added together to get the company's total value.
- ARR (Annualized Recurring Revenue): A key metric for subscription-based businesses that shows how much recurring revenue a company can expect to receive from its customers in a year.