As the artificial intelligence investment boom stretches on at home and abroad, South Korea's exchange-traded fund market is filling up with products aimed at ever-narrower slices of the industry, from high-bandwidth memory and DRAM to central processing units. As AI's reach expands, asset managers are competing more fiercely to claim standalone themes covering not only chips but also power infrastructure, physical AI and components.
The most striking shift in the domestic ETF market recently has been the fragmentation of AI chip products, according to financial investment industry officials on the 2nd. In September alone, a string of funds launched with investment scopes narrowed further within the same memory theme. KB Asset Management rolled out RISE Global AI NAND Memory Semiconductor, while Hanwha Asset Management simultaneously introduced PLUS Korea HBM Semiconductor and PLUS AI Semiconductor Materials, Parts and Equipment Active.
Their holdings diverge sharply. RISE Global AI NAND Memory Semiconductor invests in the global NAND value chain, including SK hynix, Samsung Electronics, SanDisk and Kioxia. PLUS Korea HBM Semiconductor allocates about half its portfolio to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, filling the rest with companies supplying HBM-related materials, parts and equipment. KODEX U.S. AI Memory TOP2 Plus, listed the same month, concentrates about 50% in Micron and SanDisk and about 30% in Seagate and Western Digital, focusing on leading global storage device makers.
Product competition for AI investment demand is expected to grow even more granular. SOL Global DRAM Semiconductor Plus, which concentrates on DRAM, and ACE U.S. CPU Semiconductor TOP3+, which invests mainly in U.S. CPU makers such as AMD, Arm and Intel, are close to listing. KB Asset Management, which launched its NAND-related product in September, plans to follow Hanwha with an additional actively managed ETF for chip materials, parts and equipment.
Outside chips, funds that carve out the AI value chain as a separate investment target are appearing one after another. As the technology's applications extend beyond software into the physical world of robots and automobiles, the range of related ETFs is widening as well. In September, Mirae Asset Global Investments introduced a physical AI product holding Hyundai Motor and LG Electronics at 25% each, while NH-Amundi Asset Management launched what it called the country's first agentic AI theme ETF.
In the United States, the trend has gone further still. Recent launches include ETFs investing in multilayer ceramic capacitors and printed circuit boards, as well as products concentrated on specific components or process steps in the AI industry, such as robot actuators, foundry services and 800-volt direct current power infrastructure. "The trend is toward designing products more precisely, on the assumption that investor interest may concentrate on areas where growth potential stands out," an asset management industry official said.
