- Scarcely known outside its home market until this week, Elice Inc. on Tuesday found itself at the heart of a roiling debate about AI valuations and whether companies will be able to deliver on them.

- The $750 million data center and AI developer became a surprise poster child for the loss of faith in so-called neoclouds when it tanked 32% on its debut in Seoul. It joined a half-dozen other companies in the sector that just over the past few weeks have shown souring sentiment on artificial intelligence. Australia’s Firmus Grid Ltd. and AirTrunk have delayed public offerings, Britain’s Nscale Ltd. and US peer SB Energy Inc. faced investor pushback on their valuations, and CoreWeave Inc.’s bond yields shot up to 15%.

- In a sharp reversal from the broad-based pile-in of recent years, global markets are now being much more selective and demanding with AI bets. Neoclouds, the firms that specialize in running dedicated facilities for AI computation delivered over the internet, are an essential part of the supply chain that customers like Anthropic PBC and OpenAI tap in multibillion-dollar deals for capacity. But worries about financing, delays in data center construction and the uncertainty of returns have jolted the entire tech ecosystem, triggering the longest losing streak in semiconductor stocks since the global financial crisis.

- “Elice’s disastrous debut is another confirmation that the era of ‘buy everything AI’ has given way to ‘question everything AI,’” said Hebe Chen, senior market analyst at Vantage Global.