While everyone chased the crypto narrative, the real alpha was in Seoul.
The best-performing asset of the last 12 months is South Korea. Top 5 assets by 12M return:
š°š· South Korea $EWY +222%
āļø Rare Earth Metals $REMX +190%
š¾ Semiconductors $SMH +151%
š„ Silver $SLV +138%
āļø Silver Miners $SIL +135%
Bitcoin ETF over the same 12 months: ā16%.
A few observations:
1. Every Nvidia GPU needs HBM (high bandwidth memory). Only three companies make it at scale: SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron. Two of them are Korean, and they dominate EWY's weighting. The Korean memory cycle is the second derivative of the entire AI capex boom.
2. While US investors bid up Nvidia and the hyperscalers, Korean chipmakers were delivering even better returns from a far lower starting valuation. The market underowned them because they do not fit the clean "US AI" narrative.
3. Rare earths and silver miners are the parallel deglobalization trade. Critical minerals are being repriced from "commodity" to "strategic asset" as supply chains rewire around AI infrastructure and the energy transition.
