South Korean retail investors investing in U.S. stock markets\u2014known locally as “Seohak ants”\u2014poured more than \u20a9100 billion into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix over the past week.<\/p>\n
According to the Korea Securities Depository’s securities information portal SEIBro, these investors net purchased $85.61 million (approximately \u20a9120 billion) of the Roundhill Memory ETF (ticker: DRAM) between August 14 and 20. That ranks second among all overseas investments by South Korean retail investors during the period, trailing only Alphabet ($89.12 million).<\/p>\n
DRAM is a U.S.-listed active ETF that concentrates its holdings in memory semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron. There’s a reason South Korean investors who already hold Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shares directly are choosing to buy the same names again through an ETF: accumulated disappointment with the domestic stock market has pushed them toward global diversification.<\/p>\n
Analysts say holding DRAM companies through a U.S.-listed ETF allows investors to simultaneously benefit from dollar-asset currency hedging and U.S. market premiums. Individual stocks like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix tend to be more volatile than ETFs. As of August 22, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are down 29% and 41%, respectively, from their all-time highs. The move reflects investors’ intent to reduce risk from single-country individual stock exposure through lower-volatility, globally diversified vehicles.<\/p>\n
The semiconductor sector has been showing signs of recovery. Over the past two weeks (August 10\u201321), SK Hynix rose 21.7% and Samsung Electronics gained 21.9%\u2014more than double the KOSPI’s 10.4% gain over the same period. Micron and SanDisk also climbed 11% and 32%, respectively, between August 10 and 20.<\/p>\n
Nvidia’s ‘Circular Financing’ Underpins Semiconductor Sentiment<\/p>\n
A key factor reassuring semiconductor investors is the emergence of GPU “circular financing” centered on Nvidia. This financing structure involves Nvidia providing what amounts to debt guarantees, using GPUs as underlying assets, to neocloud companies at the forefront of the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. Neocloud companies purchase AI infrastructure in advance and then lease it out to generate revenue. As long as there are signals that AI is functioning well, semiconductors are bound to sell.<\/p>\n
Semiconductors are where money flows first in the early investment phase of the AI market. Just as generators must be purchased before a power plant can be built, GPUs must be deployed before AI services can scale. Nvidia’s $500 billion order backlog (approximately \u20a9692.5 trillion) and its memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with six Wall Street financial institutions\u2014including Goldman Sachs and BlackRock\u2014to establish a computing finance platform are steps toward institutionalizing this structure. For now, investors believe this framework is safe.<\/p>\n
KOSPI Reclaims 6,900 Level… Massive Shareholder Returns Defend the Market<\/p>\n
The KOSPI reclaimed the 6,900 level on August 21, powered by gains in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The index closed at 6,912.95, up 60.37 points (0.88%) from the previous session. Samsung Electronics finished at \u20a9281,500, up \u20a910,500 (3.87%), while SK Hynix closed at \u20a91.73 million, up \u20a939,000 (2.31%). The two stocks contributed approximately 101 points to the index’s gain, defending a session in which 683 of 904 stocks declined.<\/p>\n
The market initially fell as the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield broke back above 4.7%, but rebounded on news that Samsung Electronics would announce shareholder return measures exceeding \u20a9100 trillion. Individual and foreign investors net sold \u20a9966.5 billion and \u20a9428.6 billion worth of KOSPI-listed shares, respectively, but “other corporations”\u2014a category reflecting SK Hynix’s treasury share buybacks\u2014recorded net purchases of \u20a91.08 trillion.<\/p>\n
Lee Jae-won, an analyst at Yuanta Securities, noted: “A new player\u2014other corporations\u2014has been added to KOSPI supply-demand dynamics that previously relied heavily on foreign net buying.”<\/p>\n
After market close, Samsung Electronics disclosed that it will allocate 50% of free cash flow (FCF) to shareholder returns over the next three years\u2014the largest such commitment ever by a South Korean listed company. For the third quarter of this year, the company plans to distribute approximately \u20a930 trillion in cash dividends, including its regular quarterly dividend, with specific measures to be finalized at a board meeting in late October.<\/p>\n
Nvidia Earnings Next Week to Determine Near-Term Direction<\/p>\n
Upcoming events are also squarely focused on the semiconductor sector. Nvidia is scheduled to report quarterly earnings on August 26 (local time). The market expects Nvidia to post record second-quarter revenue of $91.9 billion (approximately \u20a9127.3 trillion) and earnings per share (EPS) of $2.08.<\/p>\n
Analysts Lim Jung-eun and Tae Yoon-sun said: “This is a key event to confirm whether the AI investment cycle will continue. Earnings and guidance are expected to sway investment sentiment across semiconductor and AI infrastructure stocks broadly.”<\/p>\n
Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities, said: “Nvidia’s earnings will be a critical inflection point for AI investment sentiment. Key factors to watch include the ramp-up of next-generation AI chip Blackwell, Rubin shipment outlook, and whether gross margins can be defended.”<\/p>\n
However, macro uncertainty is unlikely to ease anytime soon. The fundamental drivers pushing up U.S. long-term Treasury yields\u2014deteriorating U.S. fiscal conditions and high oil prices\u2014are difficult to resolve in the short term. Next week’s U.S. July Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation data and the Jackson Hole meeting are also wild cards. If PCE inflation comes in above the market consensus of 3.6%, inflation concerns could intensify and raise the likelihood of additional Federal Reserve rate hikes.<\/p>\n
KB Securities analyzed that if the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield breaks above 5.0%, capital providers such as financial institutions and venture capital firms could begin withdrawing AI investment funds, amplifying the shock to global equity markets. Lee Eun-taek, a director at KB Securities, explained: “Capital providers typically turn away from risk when rates rise, before economic slowdowns even materialize. If Treasuries alone can deliver high returns, there’s less reason to take on higher risk by funding AI companies.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korean retail investors investing in U.S. stock markets\u2014known locally as “Seohak ants”\u2014poured more than \u20a9100 billion into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[10828,3166,65674,7356,335,1485,2295,694,127,276,275],"class_list":["post-128469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-samsung-electronics","tag-blackrock","tag-goldman-sachs","tag-jackson-hole-meeting","tag-korea-securities-depository","tag-kospi","tag-micron","tag-nvidia","tag-roundhill-memory-etf","tag-samsung","tag-samsung-electronics","tag-sk-hynix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}