Mirae Asset Securities, a South Korean brokerage firm, has seen its stock price more than triple since the start of the year. Investors are treating the company as a proxy for gaining exposure to Elon Musk's SpaceX, driven by high expectations for the space company's potential massive initial public offering. This surge has made the Seoul-based securities firm the top-performing constituent in the MSCI All Country World Index so far in 2026.
According to analyst reports, Mirae Asset Securities has invested a cumulative total exceeding $400 million in SpaceX and its affiliated artificial intelligence company, xAI. The sharp rise in the brokerage's share price reflects a scramble by investors to position themselves for a potential combined public listing of SpaceX and xAI, an entity that could be valued at up to $1.25 trillion. The performance also underscores the ongoing strength of the South Korean stock market, which is buoyed by optimistic forecasts for AI-driven chip demand and bolstered by governance reforms implemented by President Lee Jae-myung.
Ha Seok-keun, Chief Investment Officer at Eugene Asset Management, noted that Mirae Asset Securities is benefiting from both the robust Korean equity market, which is improving its core business fundamentals, and its stake in SpaceX, providing an additional catalyst for growth. This allows investors to capture value from two distinct sources.
Amid government efforts to enhance stock valuations and attract retail investors, brokerage stocks have emerged as one of the best-performing sectors this year within South Korea's KOSPI index, which is itself the world's top-performing major equity index. SK Securities has seen gains of approximately 200% year-to-date, while Hanwha Investment & Securities has risen over 100%.
Yoon Yoo-dong, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities Co., highlighted that a key driver behind Mirae Asset's share price appreciation is its $7.5 billion investment portfolio, which is heavily concentrated in the space and AI sectors. The firm's investments also include U.S. AI company Perplexity AI and Chinese drone manufacturer DJI.
The company's operational performance has also been strong. During an earnings call last week, Mirae Asset Securities reported that its securities business revenue for 2025 hit a record high, increasing by 43% year-over-year.
However, some analysts caution that the stock's rally may have outstripped its fundamental support. The stock is trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21, which is three times its five-year average. KB Securities Co. analyst Kang Seung-gun warned that current valuations appear elevated, and the tangible benefits from the increased valuation of its investment portfolio remain unclear. In a research note dated February 9, Kang wrote that much of the profit growth stems from unrealized gains in consolidated funds, which have a limited direct impact on the company's standalone capital. Therefore, significant uncertainty remains regarding the conversion of these valuation gains into actual returns for shareholders.