Taiwan dethrones Korea as top AI trade on supply-chain breadth
TechNews reports Taiwan's weighted index beat Korea's KOSPI by 23 percentage points in July–September, the widest gap since the early 2000s, with year-to-date returns of about 72% versus 65%. A September Bank of America fund manager survey found nearly 40% of respondents overweight Taiwan versus 25% for Korea, and 35% see Taiwan as the main beneficiary of the next AI cycle against just 5% for Korea. M&G Investments portfolio manager Vikas Pershad said Taiwan's earnings growth comes from volume expansion and is therefore broader-based, while Korea's upgrades are concentrated in price factors and rely heavily on Samsung and SK Hynix.
AI investment is broadening from a single memory upcycle toward a fuller supply chain, and how capital reallocates across Asian tech will shape the next phase of AI hardware spending.