Korean Retail Investors Flock to Chinese AI Stocks, Cambricon Sees Nearly $20M in Net Buying in One Month
0xBroomberg
Korean retail investors are extending their AI bets from domestic chip giants into Chinese equities, with Cambricon drawing nearly $20 million in net purchases in a single month — a sign that cross-border capital is chasing the AI supply chain deeper, even as leverage-fueled structural risks mount.
What are Korean retail investors buying in China?
In Hong Kong: MiniMax has attracted roughly $21 million in net purchases since its January IPO; Montage Technology drew about $19 million.
In mainland A-shares: Cambricon led with nearly $20 million in net purchases over the past month; NAURA Technology received about $3.5 million.
This means → Korean money has moved from Hong Kong tech ETFs into individual A-share names, drilling deeper along the AI chain — from the application layer (MiniMax) to chips (Cambricon) to equipment (NAURA).
How are Korean institutions following the retail wave?
In March, KB Asset Management listed the RISE China AI Semiconductor Top 4 Plus ETF on the Korea Exchange, tracking 15 AI-semiconductor companies across mainland China and Hong Kong — covering foundries, AI chips, optical-communications modules, materials, and equipment.
A rival product, the KODEX China AI Semiconductor TOP10 ETF, surged 31.81% in its first month and briefly topped Korea's ETF performance charts.
In plain terms = Korean fund houses saw retail investors buying Chinese AI stocks on their own, so they packaged the theme into one-click products and listed them locally.
What underpins Korea's domestic AI confidence?
June exports rose 70.9% year-on-year to $102.25 billion, the fastest growth in nearly half a century; semiconductor exports alone jumped 199.5% to $44.8 billion.
In May, SK Hynix's market cap topped $1 trillion. The company holds roughly 58% of the global high-bandwidth memory (HBM — high-speed memory chips purpose-built to feed AI processors) market.
President Lee Jae-myung announced a "three-axis" national programme centred on semiconductors, physical AI, and data centres. Samsung and SK Hynix will each build two major fabs in southwestern Korea, with related investment of KRW 800 trillion; the tech ministry projects AI data-centre investment may exceed KRW 1,000 trillion by 2035.
What loop are retail investors actually running?
China accounts buy Cambricon and robotics ETFs. Hong Kong accounts buy MiniMax and tech ETFs. U.S. accounts buy the Roundhill Memory ETF — which drew $317 million in net purchases in May, the most-bought U.S. ETF among Korean retail investors. Domestic accounts buy Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
In plain terms = four markets, one full circle — and every position is a bet on the same question: can AI infrastructure demand hold up?
This reflects a conviction that has gone borderless, but a portfolio this concentrated on a single theme means that if the thesis cracks, every account takes the hit at once.
How much risk has leverage added?
In May, Korea's first single-stock leveraged and inverse ETFs — 16 products tied to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix — went live. More than 350,000 people completed the required trading-qualification training.
On June 23, the KOSPI fell 9.99% in a single session; Samsung and Hynix each dropped more than 12%, triggering a 20-minute trading halt. On July 2, a 2× leveraged Hynix ETF that had risen more than tenfold year-to-date plunged over 20% in one day.
As of May, Korean retail leverage in equities topped KRW 60 trillion; margin borrowing on KOSPI reached KRW 29 trillion, up 71% from year-end. Brokerage lending limits have already been hit.
Are foreign funds and retail investors betting opposite directions?
In the first half of the year, foreign investors pulled roughly $137.36 billion from Asian equities; about $70.8 billion of that came from Korea — one of the heaviest regional outflows.
This means → foreign money is de-risking while retail is adding leverage — two forces moving in opposite directions, creating the most prominent structural tension in Korea's AI trade right now.
In plain terms = institutional players think prices are stretched and are leaving; retail investors are borrowing because they think prices are still cheap. Who is right remains an open question, but if the market lurches again, the leveraged side will absorb far more damage than the cash side.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.