SK Telecom is worth getting into because its AI cloud plan and Anthropic stake are large relative to its $14B market cap. It already earns about $1B a year in operating income, and NVIDIA says SK Telecom plans a gigawatt-scale AI cloud in Korea on its DSX platform, with the first AI factory online in 2027. Its roughly 0.25% Anthropic stake would be worth about $4–4.5B at a $2T valuation after dilution, already 30% of its market cap. x.com  x.com 

SK Telecom offers a buried Anthropic stake priced like a utility. The stake sits on its balance sheet at cost, and Anthropic's confidential IPO filing on June 1, targeting the second half, should force the market to mark it. Per @michaelsikand, SK Telecom has four times the next-best Anthropic exposure per dollar of market cap, and its core telco trades near 6.1x EV/EBITDA. It is still a proxy: foreign-listed, prone to conglomerate discounts, with a stake that is hard to mark precisely. x.com 

SK Telecom shareholders may never see much of its Anthropic upside, because SKM sits inside the SK Group chaebol, run by a Chey family that favors the group over public holders. Proceeds could leak to affiliates through inflated intercompany contracts or be steered into group priorities, and Chairman Chey Tae-won's $1.1 billion divorce settlement gives him reason to keep value inside the group. ADR holders have no board seats, meaningful votes, real legal recourse or binding dividend policy. … Show more

SK Telecom is becoming Anthropic's Korean infrastructure partner, not just a holder of an Anthropic stake. Its $100 million 2023 investment is worth an estimated $2.7 billion, about 19% of its market cap, before any Anthropic IPO rerating. CEO Jung Jae-heon said SKT joined the Series H, won't sell, and that Anthropic is discussing compute with SKT. It joined Project Glasswing, and its gigawatt-scale Nvidia AI cloud starts in 2027. It trades at 6.1x EV/EBITDA versus 7.5-9x for Western peers. … Show more

An Anthropic IPO would force a market value onto SK Telecom's stake, which sits on its balance sheet at book value. SK Telecom invested $100M in 2023 at a $5B valuation and still holds roughly 0.3%, worth about $3B at a $1 trillion Anthropic against SK Telecom's roughly $15B market cap. If higher rumored valuations land, the stake becomes a meaningful fraction of the company, offering Anthropic exposure retail cannot otherwise buy, priced like a telco. x.com 

SK Telecom pairs a defensive cash-cow telecom business with a second growth leg as Nvidia's primary Asian AI compute deployment partner. Nvidia announced a partnership with SK Telecom to build gigawatt-scale AI cloud infrastructure in Korea; its first AI factory, due in 2027, will not be full gigawatt scale at launch, but the story holds. Taking SK Broadband fully private gives it control of data center cash flows, while Korea's largest mobile share in mature 5G supplies stable cash. x.com 

SK Telecom is a Korean telecom with a free AI lottery ticket in its Anthropic stake, which the market hasn't priced. It invested $100M at a $5B valuation in August 2023; its roughly 0.5% stake is worth about $2B at Anthropic's $380B Series G mark, 14% of SK Telecom's $14.5B market cap. At a $1T Anthropic IPO valuation, the stake would be worth $5B, or 40% of the market cap. WSJ reports Anthropic's next round at $900B, with an IPO reportedly targeted for Q4 2026. x.com  x.com 

SK Telecom combines a data center business, a stake in Anthropic and the potential turnaround of its legacy telecom business. x.com 

SK Telecom could be a really good play heading into Anthropic's IPO. x.com 

SK Telecom is a better Anthropic proxy than Zoom, and the pair favors owning SK Telecom over Zoom. Per a post the author replies to, SK Telecom owns about 1.07% of Anthropic versus about 0.6% for Zoom after dilution. Zoom's core business could be in real jeopardy, while SK Telecom's Korean franchise could benefit as it moves into gigawatt-scale data centers for hyperscalers. SK Telecom also pays a 3-4% dividend yield, unlike typical multi-layer SPVs that cost holders money. x.com