A woman walks past a sign reading AI at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, China, November 2025. Reuters-Yonhap
HONG KONG — Korean retail investors, known for their aggressive trading style, are ramping up exposure to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI)-related stocks, even as their home market ranks among the world’s top performers.
Data from SEIBro, a portal operated by the Korea Securities Depository, showed that Korean retail investors bought $507 million worth of Hong Kong-listed shares and $154 million of mainland-listed shares between Jan. 2 and Feb. 23.
The data showed that total purchases had already matched the combined levels seen in the first two months of 2025, when the launch of Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek’s R1 model sparked a global rally in China’s technology sector.
This year’s buying has been heavily concentrated in AI and semiconductor names.
In Hong Kong, the most actively bought stock on a net basis was startup MiniMax AI, which has attracted $21 million from Korean retail investors since its January debut. Montage Technology, a Shanghai-based semiconductor company that debuted in February, followed with $19 million in net purchases.
On mainland exchanges, semiconductor equipment maker Naura Technology was the top pick, drawing $3.5 million in net buying.
“I’m betting shares in this Chinese version of OpenAI will skyrocket,” said Roy Lee, a Korean retail investor who recently bought MiniMax and holds more than 20 technology stocks globally.
Despite a 14.5 percent plunge on Wednesday, Shanghai-based MiniMax’s share price has more than doubled since its Jan. 9 debut, climbing to 752.50 Hong Kong dollars ($96.24) from HK$345.
The spread of AI technology, improving corporate earnings and policy support have driven a re-rating of Chinese AI-related stocks and significantly boosted investor sentiment, according to a January report by Goldman Sachs.
Korean retail trading in Hong Kong and mainland China peaked in 2021 during the pandemic-era liquidity boom, before slumping sharply in 2023 to about a quarter of its 2021 level. Buying rebounded in 2025, with retail investors snapping up about $5.8 billion worth of shares across the two markets.
Analysts expect the momentum to continue this year, even as Korea’s domestic market ranks among the world’s best performers.
Gary Ng, senior economist for Asia-Pacific at the investment bank Natixis, said Chinese AI equities could serve “as a natural hedge against AI bubble risks fueled by massive investment from U.S. hyperscalers, which has also boosted Korea’s equity market”.
Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index has surged more than 40 percent since the start of the year. It surpassed the 6,000 mark for the first time Wednesday, led by gains in tech heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
“For Korean investors looking to invest in tech while diversifying risk, China can remain an attractive option given its low valuations,” Ng added.
Lee Je-chung, Hong Kong-based CSOP Asset Management’s director in charge of international exchange-traded fund strategy and business development, said he expected Chinese equities to perform even better in the second half of this year, outpacing both emerging and developed markets.
“I think 2026 is going to be the empire striking back,” Lee said.
