Korean retail investors in overseas stocks, known as “Seohak Ants,” have purchased one-tenth of the inflows into “DRAM,” a global memory semiconductor exchange-traded fund (ETF) that marked its first month on the New York Stock Exchange. Korean investors essentially “reverse-imported” a U.S. ETF in which Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS) account for nearly 50% of the portfolio. The DRAM ETF returned 45% in its first month, outperforming Korea’s leading semiconductor ETFs and validating Korean investors’ overseas bet.
The net assets of the Roundhill Memory ETF “DRAM” surpassed $2 billion on April 29 (local time). Roundhill Investments
According to ETF.com on Wednesday, the Roundhill Memory ETF (ticker: DRAM), which listed on April 2 (local time), recorded assets under management (AUM) of $2.48 billion (about 3.65 trillion won) as of May 1. Inflows since listing reached $2.3 billion (about 3.38 trillion won). Data from Seibro, the securities information portal of the Korea Securities Depository, showed that Korean investors net-purchased $225.57 million (about 332 billion won) worth of the DRAM ETF between April 2 and May 1. Seohak Ants accounted for 9.8% of the net asset inflows since listing.
The DRAM ETF returned 45.57% from listing through May 1. Over the same period (April 3 to May 4), Korea’s leading semiconductor ETFs — “TIGER Semiconductor TOP10” and “KODEX Semiconductor” — gained 36.87% and 40.04%, respectively, making the DRAM ETF the stronger performer. Even accounting for the 22% overseas capital gains tax, investments channeled into the U.S. market delivered superior returns.
The key driver of the performance gap is the structural difference in portfolio composition. The DRAM ETF is the world’s first product focused exclusively on memory semiconductors, anchored by SK hynix (25.94%) and Samsung Electronics (21.62%). The remaining half concentrates on global memory and NAND flash companies, including Kioxia (6.10%), SanDisk (5.42%), Seagate (5.26%), Western Digital (4.97%), Nanya (2.99%) and Micron (2.50%). Analysts attribute the DRAM ETF’s stronger performance to a rally in these names as the memory market’s leadership, previously driven by high-bandwidth memory (HBM), recently shifted to NAND flash. By contrast, the other half of Korea’s semiconductor ETFs is invested in KOSDAQ- and KOSPI-listed semiconductor materials, parts and equipment companies.
Seohak Ants’ diverging sentiment toward semiconductor investments is also notable. They simultaneously bought large amounts of triple-inverse semiconductor products and flocked to the memory-focused ETF. According to Seibro, the top net-purchased overseas stock over the past month was the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X (SOXS, $426.07 million), an inverse product that delivers three times the return when the U.S. semiconductor index falls.
“Korean investors hold a negative view of the broader semiconductor market, which is dominated by companies tied to graphics processing units (GPUs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) such as Nvidia and Broadcom,” a financial investment industry official said. “But they are betting with conviction on further upside in the memory cycle, underpinned by surging HBM demand and a recovery in NAND prices.”