Key points
- Bought Anthropic shares at an $18 billion valuation
- Also bought SpaceX before its Nasdaq listing
- The holding company is worth $7.6 billion
- A valuation multiple is not a return
A Korean venture capital firm bought into two of the most closely watched companies in the United States while both were still private. One of the two, SpaceX, has since listed on Nasdaq. Korea Investment Partners (한국투자파트너스), a subsidiary of the listed Korea Investment Holdings (한국금융지주, 071050), holds shares in Anthropic and in SpaceX, Seoul Economic Daily (서울경제) reported on September 16.
It paid about $10 million for secondary Anthropic shares in 2024, when Anthropic was valued at $18 billion, according to the report. It paid about $10 million for SpaceX shares in August 2025, when SpaceX was valued at $400 billion.
How much of any gain reaches shareholders of the listed parent is not established by the reporting. Korea Investment Partners runs venture, private equity and offshore funds, and operates them directly out of Silicon Valley, Shanghai and Singapore, Asia Economy (아시아경제) reported in August. Neither report says whether the Anthropic and SpaceX positions sit on the firm's own books or inside funds it manages for outside investors. That distinction decides who collects. When a position sits in a managed fund, most of the gain belongs to the fund's investors and the manager keeps a fee and a share of the profit.
Both bets have moved a long way since.
SpaceX listed on Nasdaq in June and its lockup period ended this month, so those shares can now be sold on the market. SpaceX traded at $150.80 on Wednesday morning in New York, up about 5 percent, giving it a market value of about $2.05 trillion.
Anthropic is not listed yet. Its Series H round closed on May 28 at a valuation of $965 billion, and the company has filed confidentially with US regulators for an offering that could raise as much as $100 billion at a valuation near $2 trillion.
What the multiple does and does not tell you
Seoul Economic Daily put the Anthropic position at close to 100 times its cost in the most optimistic case. That comes from the valuations. Anthropic was worth $18 billion when Korea Investment Partners bought in, and a $2 trillion listing would be about 111 times that.
A valuation multiple is not the same thing as a return on the shares, though. Anthropic has raised money several times since 2024, including $65 billion in the May round. New shares issued in those rounds reduce the share of the company that an earlier investor owns. Neither the firm nor the report has disclosed how much of Anthropic the stake represents today. The disclosed figures are insufficient to calculate the investment's return.
Why a Korean firm rarely gets into these rounds
Companies like Anthropic and SpaceX do not sell to whoever shows up. Even secondary shares tend to go to a small group of Silicon Valley venture firms, corporate investors and long-term institutions. Money alone does not get an investor into the room.
Korea Investment Partners has run an office in Silicon Valley for about ten years, which is how it built the relationships, Seoul Economic Daily reported. A person in the investment banking industry described the arrangement to the paper this way.
"Korea Investment Partners, which handles venture capital investment for the group, leads the building of the local network in the United States and the sourcing of deals, and the holding company actively supports the funding," the person said. "What is becoming visible now is the result of a long bet the group made on the US market."
Korea Investment Holdings has a far smaller market value than either company. Its market value is 10.42 trillion won ($7.6B), it trades at about four times earnings, and its shares closed at 187,000 won ($137) on Wednesday, down 2.2 percent on the day.
Korea Investment Partners has no specific plan to sell its SpaceX shares yet, even though the lockup has ended, Yonhap News (연합뉴스) reported.
Meanwhile, the parent's shares are up about 16 percent this year by our arithmetic, from 161,700 won at the end of 2025 to Wednesday's close. They closed as high as 292,500 won in February.
The quote is translated from Korean. Won figures are converted at 1,368.90 won to the dollar, the Naver Finance rate on September 16, 2026.
