Investors Withdraw Record $409 Million from BlackRock's ETF Amid Kospi Surge
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: May 07 2026
0mins
Source: seekingalpha
- Record Outflow: Investors pulled a record $409 million from BlackRock's iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) on Wednesday, despite the Kospi index surging 6.5% to a year-to-date gain of 75%, indicating strong market volatility and profit-taking behavior among investors.
- Historic Single-Day Withdrawal: The $23 billion fund experienced its largest single-day outflow in history, reflecting a divergence in market sentiment as overseas investors simultaneously purchased over $2 billion of Kospi shares, nearing the record set last October, highlighting contrasting investor strategies.
- Top Performing Korean Stocks: Among the best-performing South Korean stocks year-to-date, SK Telecom leads with a 79.64% gain, followed by POSCO Holdings at 65.81%, showcasing strong performance in the tech and materials sectors that may attract further investor interest.
- Strong Financial Sector: KB Financial Group and Shinhan Financial Group ranked third and fourth with gains of 28.88% and 27.75%, respectively, indicating resilience and appeal in the financial sector under the current market conditions, which could influence future investment decisions.
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Analyst Views on SKM
About SKM
SK Telecom Co Ltd is a Korea-based company primarily engaged in the provision of wireless communication services. The Company operates the business through three segments. The Wireless Communication Business segment provides mobile phones, wireless data, information communication business. The Wireline Communication Business segment offers telephones, high speed Internet, data and network rental services. The Other segment is involved in the product sales type data broadcasting channel use business and others.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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- Architectural Advantage: The AI Cloud will leverage Nvidia's DSX full-stack reference architecture, ensuring the production of intelligence building blocks at the lowest cost and maximum energy efficiency, thereby improving the economic viability and sustainability of AI applications.
- Regional Expansion Vision: SK Telecom's AI Cloud aims not only to serve the Korean market but also to expand into broader Asian regions, indicating both companies' strategic focus on future market potential and growth opportunities.
- Deepening Collaboration: The partnership between Nvidia and SK Telecom will extend from AI infrastructure to joint research on next-generation AI factory architectures, reflecting a shared vision for technological innovation and market expansion.
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- AI Cloud Initiative: SK Telecom plans to launch its first AI factory in 2027, utilizing the NVIDIA DSX platform to build a gigawatt-scale AI Cloud aimed at providing robust AI infrastructure for various industries in Korea, enhancing overall business efficiency.
- Integrated Technology Architecture: The AI Cloud will be built on NVIDIA DSX's full-stack reference architecture, encompassing software, hardware, and operations, ensuring efficient handling of training, inference, and agentic workloads, thereby driving digital transformation for enterprises.
- Joint R&D Prospects: SK Telecom and NVIDIA will collaborate on developing next-generation AI factory architecture, focusing on silicon-to-grid innovations in accelerated computing, memory technologies, and data center operations, further deepening their strategic partnership.
- Enhanced Industry Impact: By establishing the AI Cloud, SK Telecom aims to not only strengthen its competitive edge in the AI sector but also inject new vitality into Korea's tech ecosystem, fostering innovation and development across related industries.
See More
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- AI Cloud Initiative: SK Telecom plans to establish a gigawatt-scale AI Cloud by 2027 using the NVIDIA DSX platform, aimed at providing efficient AI services for enterprises in Korea and advancing the local AI industry.
- Infrastructure Advantage: The new AI Cloud will leverage SK Telecom's network and data center infrastructure, combined with NVIDIA's accelerated computing technology, ensuring the production of AI intelligence components at the lowest cost and highest energy efficiency, enhancing market competitiveness.
- Expanded Collaborative Research: NVIDIA and SK Group will pursue joint research on next-generation AI factory architectures, focusing on innovations in accelerated computing and memory technologies to drive more efficient and scalable AI services, further solidifying their leadership in the AI sector.
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See More
Investors Withdraw Record $409 Million from BlackRock's ETF Amid Kospi Surge
- Record Outflow: Investors pulled a record $409 million from BlackRock's iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) on Wednesday, despite the Kospi index surging 6.5% to a year-to-date gain of 75%, indicating strong market volatility and profit-taking behavior among investors.
- Historic Single-Day Withdrawal: The $23 billion fund experienced its largest single-day outflow in history, reflecting a divergence in market sentiment as overseas investors simultaneously purchased over $2 billion of Kospi shares, nearing the record set last October, highlighting contrasting investor strategies.
- Top Performing Korean Stocks: Among the best-performing South Korean stocks year-to-date, SK Telecom leads with a 79.64% gain, followed by POSCO Holdings at 65.81%, showcasing strong performance in the tech and materials sectors that may attract further investor interest.
- Strong Financial Sector: KB Financial Group and Shinhan Financial Group ranked third and fourth with gains of 28.88% and 27.75%, respectively, indicating resilience and appeal in the financial sector under the current market conditions, which could influence future investment decisions.
See More
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- AI Data Center Surge: Revenue from the AI Data Center soared 89.3% year-over-year to KRW 131.4 billion, supported by higher utilization rates and increased demand for GPU-as-a-Service, showcasing the company's strong performance in emerging technology sectors and rapid market demand growth.
- Subscriber Growth: The company added approximately 210,000 mobile subscribers in the quarter, reinforcing its leadership position in South Korea's telecom market, which reflects effective strategies in customer acquisition and retention.
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- Energy Infrastructure Collaboration: SK Innovation and SK Telecom are exploring the development of an AIDC and related infrastructure in Nghe An, planning to provide energy solutions linked to the Quynh Lap LNG power project, which will support local economic growth.
- Policy Framework Support: Under the agreement with the National Innovation Center, SK Telecom will support AI ecosystem development through technology collaboration and investment promotion, while NIC will coordinate with government agencies and improve regulations to ensure smooth project execution.
- Global Expansion Strategy: This partnership marks SK Group's first overseas expansion of its
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- AI Cloud Initiative: SK Telecom plans to launch its first gigawatt-scale AI Cloud factory by 2027 using Nvidia's DSX platform, aiming to provide efficient AI services across various industries in Korea and enhance national AI infrastructure.
- Architectural Advantage: The AI Cloud will leverage Nvidia's DSX full-stack reference architecture, ensuring the production of intelligence building blocks at the lowest cost and maximum energy efficiency, thereby improving the economic viability and sustainability of AI applications.
- Regional Expansion Vision: SK Telecom's AI Cloud aims not only to serve the Korean market but also to expand into broader Asian regions, indicating both companies' strategic focus on future market potential and growth opportunities.
- Deepening Collaboration: The partnership between Nvidia and SK Telecom will extend from AI infrastructure to joint research on next-generation AI factory architectures, reflecting a shared vision for technological innovation and market expansion.
See More
SK Telecom and NVIDIA Collaborate on AI Cloud Development
- AI Cloud Initiative: SK Telecom plans to launch its first AI factory in 2027, utilizing the NVIDIA DSX platform to build a gigawatt-scale AI Cloud aimed at providing robust AI infrastructure for various industries in Korea, enhancing overall business efficiency.
- Integrated Technology Architecture: The AI Cloud will be built on NVIDIA DSX's full-stack reference architecture, encompassing software, hardware, and operations, ensuring efficient handling of training, inference, and agentic workloads, thereby driving digital transformation for enterprises.
- Joint R&D Prospects: SK Telecom and NVIDIA will collaborate on developing next-generation AI factory architecture, focusing on silicon-to-grid innovations in accelerated computing, memory technologies, and data center operations, further deepening their strategic partnership.
- Enhanced Industry Impact: By establishing the AI Cloud, SK Telecom aims to not only strengthen its competitive edge in the AI sector but also inject new vitality into Korea's tech ecosystem, fostering innovation and development across related industries.
See More
SK Telecom Partners with NVIDIA to Build AI Cloud Infrastructure
- AI Cloud Initiative: SK Telecom plans to establish a gigawatt-scale AI Cloud by 2027 using the NVIDIA DSX platform, aimed at providing efficient AI services for enterprises in Korea and advancing the local AI industry.
- Infrastructure Advantage: The new AI Cloud will leverage SK Telecom's network and data center infrastructure, combined with NVIDIA's accelerated computing technology, ensuring the production of AI intelligence components at the lowest cost and highest energy efficiency, enhancing market competitiveness.
- Expanded Collaborative Research: NVIDIA and SK Group will pursue joint research on next-generation AI factory architectures, focusing on innovations in accelerated computing and memory technologies to drive more efficient and scalable AI services, further solidifying their leadership in the AI sector.
- Market Demand Response: As demand for AI computing rapidly increases, SK Telecom's new AI Cloud will cater to enterprises' needs for physical and agentic AI services, marking Korea's significant role in the global AI industry.
See More
Investors Withdraw Record $409 Million from BlackRock's ETF Amid Kospi Surge
- Record Outflow: Investors pulled a record $409 million from BlackRock's iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) on Wednesday, despite the Kospi index surging 6.5% to a year-to-date gain of 75%, indicating strong market volatility and profit-taking behavior among investors.
- Historic Single-Day Withdrawal: The $23 billion fund experienced its largest single-day outflow in history, reflecting a divergence in market sentiment as overseas investors simultaneously purchased over $2 billion of Kospi shares, nearing the record set last October, highlighting contrasting investor strategies.
- Top Performing Korean Stocks: Among the best-performing South Korean stocks year-to-date, SK Telecom leads with a 79.64% gain, followed by POSCO Holdings at 65.81%, showcasing strong performance in the tech and materials sectors that may attract further investor interest.
- Strong Financial Sector: KB Financial Group and Shinhan Financial Group ranked third and fourth with gains of 28.88% and 27.75%, respectively, indicating resilience and appeal in the financial sector under the current market conditions, which could influence future investment decisions.
See More
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- Revenue Growth: SK Telecom reported consolidated revenue of KRW 4.3923 trillion for Q1 2026, reflecting a year-over-year increase of 1.4% and a quarter-over-quarter rise of 1.5%, driven by a recovery in the wireless business and growth in the AI Data Center segment, indicating sustained competitiveness in the market.
- AI Data Center Surge: Revenue from the AI Data Center soared 89.3% year-over-year to KRW 131.4 billion, supported by higher utilization rates and increased demand for GPU-as-a-Service, showcasing the company's strong performance in emerging technology sectors and rapid market demand growth.
- Subscriber Growth: The company added approximately 210,000 mobile subscribers in the quarter, reinforcing its leadership position in South Korea's telecom market, which reflects effective strategies in customer acquisition and retention.
- Dividend Resumption: SK Telecom announced the resumption of quarterly dividends, declaring a payout of KRW 830 per share for the first quarter, signaling a positive outlook on financial health and shareholder returns, thereby enhancing investor confidence.
See More
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- AI Ecosystem Development: SK Group signed MOUs with Vietnam's Nghe An Province and the National Innovation Center to foster the AI industry by constructing AI data centers and ensuring stable power supply, thereby laying the groundwork for Vietnam's national AI strategy.
- Energy Infrastructure Collaboration: SK Innovation and SK Telecom are exploring the development of an AIDC and related infrastructure in Nghe An, planning to provide energy solutions linked to the Quynh Lap LNG power project, which will support local economic growth.
- Policy Framework Support: Under the agreement with the National Innovation Center, SK Telecom will support AI ecosystem development through technology collaboration and investment promotion, while NIC will coordinate with government agencies and improve regulations to ensure smooth project execution.
- Global Expansion Strategy: This partnership marks SK Group's first overseas expansion of its
See More
