About 84% of assets concentrated in Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Micron and SanDisk; memory chipmakers recast as structural AI growth plays
By Jung Yoon-hee, The Herald Business
Hanwha Asset Management announced Sunday that its PLUS Global HBM Semiconductor exchange-traded fund has surpassed 1 trillion won (about $665 million) in net assets.
According to Korea Exchange data, the ETF crossed the 1 trillion won threshold as of the close of trading on Thursday. The fund had broken through the 500 billion won ($333 million) level earlier this month, meaning it roughly doubled in size in about three weeks.
The PLUS Global HBM Semiconductor ETF concentrates roughly 84 percent of its holdings in key domestic and international memory chipmakers — Micron (30.1 percent), SK Hynix (28.2 percent), Samsung Electronics (21.6 percent) and SanDisk (4.2 percent). The fund has returned 76.1 percent over the past three months, 219.8 percent over six months, 579.6 percent over one year and 172.6 percent since the start of the year.
Hanwha Asset Management attributed the performance to a shift in how investors perceive memory chipmakers. The AI rally, which had been driven primarily by graphics processing units, has now extended to memory chips, the firm said, with the sector being revalued not as a cyclical play but as a structural growth story tied to expanding AI infrastructure.
UBS recently raised its price target on Micron nearly threefold, from $535 to $1,625. Barclays also lifted its Micron target from $675 to $1,175 and its SanDisk target from $1,200 to $2,300.
The ETF recently added SanDisk through a scheduled index rebalancing, increasing its exposure to NAND flash memory. The fund also added memory testing and back-end equipment stocks, including Teradyne and Techwing, to capture potential gains from rising capital expenditure in the memory sector.
"Unlike most domestic semiconductor ETFs, which focus on Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix alongside materials, parts and equipment companies, the PLUS Global HBM Semiconductor ETF concentrates on the frontline players of the memory supercycle — companies like Micron and SanDisk," said Keum Jeong-seop, head of the ETF business division at Hanwha Asset Management. "In the current environment, where AI inference is spreading and memory prices are jumping by double digits every quarter, the key performance variable is how heavily a fund is weighted toward the front-end names that capture cycle margins first."
yuni@heraldcorp.com
