The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) has risen 80% year-to-date and about 200% over the past year, fueled mainly by its heavy exposure to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which together make up nearly half the fund. These companies dominate the high-bandwidth memory market essential for NVIDIA's AI GPUs, linking EWY's performance closely to AI-driven memory chip demand. While EWY is officially a Korean equity index fund, it effectively acts as a play on AI memory technology growth. Investors should note risks including concentration in memory stocks, exposure to Korean economic and governance reforms, and currency fluctuations. EWY suits those seeking AI memory exposure without focusing on a single chipmaker, but it carries cyclical and political uncertainties.
Shares of major memory and semiconductor companies like SanDisk and Micron dropped sharply following a proposal by a top South Korean official to redistribute excess AI-driven profits from chipmakers like Samsung and SK Hynix to the public. This spar...
The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) fell sharply by 10% after a government official suggested AI-related profits should be taken for public benefit, causing investor caution. The ETF is heavily concentrated in SK Hynix and Samsung, which make up 5...
