Korean retail investors are ramping up bets on U.S. semiconductor and technology stocks ahead of Nvidia's earnings release. Over the past week, they bought nearly 1 trillion won worth of an exchange-traded fund that tracks three times the daily return of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, while also concentrating funds on memory chip products and individual stocks such as SanDisk.
According to the Korea Securities Depository's SEIBro data portal, Korean investors net purchased $712.91 million (about 984.5 billion won) of the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3x Shares (SOXL) on U.S. markets from the 17th to the 24th of this month. That was the largest net purchase of any U.S. stock during the period. SOXL is a high-risk leveraged product that tracks three times the daily return of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
Memory chip ETFs also drew buying. The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM), which concentrates investment in major memory companies including Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and Micron, recorded net purchases of $88.78 million (about 122.7 billion won), ranking third overall. The Roundhill T-Rex 2x Long DRAM Daily Target ETF (RAM), which tracks twice the daily return of memory chip companies, also drew $46.96 million (about 64.9 billion won) in net purchases, ranking 11th.
Funds also flowed into products investing in technology stocks broadly. The Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQM), which tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index, posted a net buying edge of $47.51 million (about 65.7 billion won), ranking eighth in net purchases.
Among individual tech stocks, SanDisk attracted the most funds. Korean investors net purchased $102.9 million (about 142.3 billion won) of SanDisk, placing it second overall behind SOXL. Alphabet ranked fourth at $80.26 million, and Broadcom ranked 12th at $36.99 million.
Even as U.S. tech stocks have come under renewed pressure, Korean investors appear to be betting on a rebound. The Nasdaq index rose from 24,442.94 on the 29th of last month to 26,803.03 on the 13th of this month, but its upward momentum has since weakened.
Regulatory pressure from U.S. politicians over artificial intelligence data centers and additional economic sanctions on Iran by the Donald Trump administration have dampened investor sentiment. Caution ahead of Nvidia's earnings release is also cited as a factor that has increased volatility in tech stocks.
Market attention is focused on Nvidia's earnings release scheduled for the 26th. Nvidia's results are seen as a gauge not only of demand for AI chips but also of whether Big Tech companies will sustain their data center investments. Bloomberg described Nvidia's earnings release as effectively a quarterly assessment of investor sentiment toward AI-related stocks as a whole.
Cho Jae-woon, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said, "Nvidia's earnings release is not the event of a single stock but an occasion to confirm whether Big Tech's AI investment is continuing." He added, "If revenue exceeds $93 billion and the outlook for the next quarter also beats market expectations, there is room to test the upper price bound that the options market is pricing in."
