It is moving from a weak position. Shares closed near 16 cents on June 29, and Nasdaq has twice warned the company this year that it no longer meets listing rules, in January for trading below $1 and again in June because its publicly held shares are worth less than the $15 million minimum.
K Wave is considering a reverse stock split, which combines shares into fewer, higher-priced shares to raise the quoted price. The $250 million it hopes to raise is many times its entire market value.
The retreat fits a pattern followed by bitcoin miners.
These firms have sold more than 15,000 bitcoin from peak holdings and signed over $70 billion in AI computing contracts, chasing steadier margins than mining offers, and treasury companies are now joining that rotation. And it worked for some of the struggling miners, as their stock rallied from their lows. For example, IREN, a previously bitcoin mining company that pivoted to AI, saw its shares surge more than 200% after languishing since 2022.
It is the same shift of money out of crypto and into the AI trade that has weighed on bitcoin through a losing first half.
Whether the switch works remains unproven so far. AI infrastructure is capital-heavy and crowded with better-funded rivals, and K Wave has to stay on Nasdaq long enough to spend what it raises.