Chinese corporation DeepSeek, which emphasizes cost efficiency, has also caused waves in the domestic stock market as a KOSDAQ-listed company claimed to be a 'DeepSeek theme stock.' As news related to DeepSeek poured in, the company announced that it is "preparing a model based on DeepSeek," which led to a surge in stock prices.
However, as the stock price has risen, the previously issued convertible bonds (CB) will be converted into stocks, leading to the issuance of new shares. The issuance of new shares will dilute the value of existing shares, putting downward pressure on the stock price.
On the 3rd, MAUM.AI finished trading at 22,000 won, down 3.51% (800 won) from the previous trading day. MAUM.AI's stock rose more than 13% on Jan. 31. While the domestic stock market fell due to the shock from the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, MAUM.AI's stock rose amid expectations of a related benefit.
On this day, MAUM.AI announced that it will list 71,017 shares as a result of exercising the conversion right for the first round of convertible bonds (CB) worth 15 billion won, which are non-guaranteed and convertible into shares.
According to the announcement, the conversion rights for the CB were exercised on the 15th and 31st of last month. The new shares amounting to 11,362, which were claimed for an amount of 200 million won on the 15th of last month, are scheduled to be listed on the 10th. The 59,655 shares claimed for an amount of 1.05 billion won on the 31st of last month will be listed on the 20th. The new stock totaling 71,017 shares will be issued at a conversion price of 17,601 won, representing 1.13% of the existing issued shares.
The CB for which the conversion rights are being exercised this time was the first unsecured private convertible bond issued by MAUM.AI worth 15 billion won in April 2023. The bondholders decided to exercise the conversion right to receive shares instead of recovering the principal, which is interpreted as being due to the recent surge in MAUM.AI's stock price.
The stock price of MAUM.AI, which was in the 13,000 won range until December last year, has surged recently. On Dec. 9, the closing price for MAUM.AI was 12,930 won, and on the 31st of last month, it closed at 22,800 won, marking a 76.33% surge. On just the 31st of last month, the stock rose 13.15% compared to the previous trading day.
This is closely related to the emergence of 'DeepSeek', which has been causing waves in the global AI industry. The Chinese AI startup DeepSeek announced that on the 27th (local time), it launched a chatbot service comparable to the U.S. ChatGPT at a low cost. DeepSeek claimed it developed the open-source AI model 'DeepSeek-R1' in just two months for an expense of $5.58 million, which is one-tenth of the training expense invested by Meta Platforms in its latest AI model, Llama 3.
In particular, news that DeepSeek launched generative AI services at a low cost without using Nvidia's high-performance latest chips, which are considered essential for AI development, greatly shook big tech stocks such as Nvidia, Meta, Alphabet, and Microsoft. In fact, DeepSeek's AI model DeepSeek-R1 was reportedly rated superior to the inference AI model 'O1' released by OpenAI in September last year in some performance tests.
Last week, the domestic stock market, where DeepSeek's impact was significant, saw MAUM.AI benefit rather than suffer as it was grouped as a 'DeepSeek-related stock.' MAUM.AI announced that it is developing a large language model (LLM) based on DeepSeek. Choi Hong-seob, Chief Technology Officer of MAUM.AI, noted in an interview with a media outlet on the 30th of last month that the company is preparing to launch a "top-tier model size on-premises LLM" based on the DeepSeek AI model, indicating that the shock from DeepSeek is affecting both domestic and international stock markets, leading to a surge in related stocks.
There is a possibility that new shares of MAUM.AI will be released in the future. The outstanding amount of convertible bonds issued by MAUM.AI is 13.4 billion won. If bondholders exercise the conversion rights instead of recovering the principal, another 761,320 shares could be listed.