South Korean retail investors net bought over $2.8 billion of Chinese AI assets in the first half of the year, with NAURA Technology Group and Cambricon Technologies being top picks.

BlockBeats News, July 4 - According to data from the Korea Securities Depository's securities information portal, in the first half of 2026, South Korean investors accumulated a net purchase of approximately $2.82B in Chinese assets through both individual stocks and ETFs. Among them, A-share purchases amounted to about $678 million, a surge of 130.55% year-on-year. Semiconductor equipment company NAURA Technology Group topped the A-share purchase list with approximately $33.94 million, followed by AI chip leader Cambricon Technologies with $27.28 million, and CATL ranked third. South Korean retail investors are focusing on targets regarded as "China's version of NVIDIA," with the core logic being earnings improvements and rising expectations for China's independent R&D capabilities in AI semiconductors.

In the Hong Kong stock market, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) became the most favored Chinese asset among South Korean investors with $85.46 million. AI company MiniMax, listed in January, received approximately $66.65 million in purchases, ranking second, and Alibaba ranked third. ETFs have become an important allocation channel. In the first half of the year, 10 China-focused ETFs received a total net purchase of approximately $209 million, with the Global X China Semiconductor ETF leading at about $60.83 million.

Standard Chartered Bank analysts stated outright that foreign capital's attitude toward Chinese assets "has fundamentally changed," shifting from a geopolitical discount perspective to an AI industry value revaluation logic.