Korea Investment Trust Management is launching an exchange-traded fund that concentrates its holdings in leading U.S. central processing unit makers, including Intel, AMD and Arm.
The asset manager said on the 19th that it will list the ACE US CPU Semiconductor TOP3+ ETF on the main board of the Korea Exchange on the 20th. The fund invests in 10 CPU-related stocks listed on U.S. exchanges, targeting both core CPU designers and the broader server chip supply chain.
The product is built around the shift in artificial intelligence spending from graphics processing units toward CPUs and other chips needed to run agentic AI. Its main holdings are Intel, AMD and Arm, each kept at about 25% of the portfolio, giving the three companies a combined weighting of roughly 75%. Intel and AMD supply server CPUs to large cloud operators, while Arm has been expanding in the segment since releasing a CPU for AI data centers in March this year.
The remaining 25% is spread across seven companies in related industries, including server CPU manufacturing, memory, networking and server assembly. The structure is designed to capture growth not only among CPU designers but across the supply chain required to build server infrastructure, the company said. If a major related company newly lists on an exchange, it can be added to the ETF three business days after its listing date, subject to review by the index committee.
Agentic AI refers to technology that autonomously carries out multiple tasks based on a user's instructions, and CPUs are expected to take on a larger role as such systems handle complex jobs simultaneously. Global investment banks also see strong growth potential in the market. Mizuho Securities projected the market for agentic CPUs would reach $80 billion by 2030. Bernstein estimated that the total market tied to server CPUs could expand to $223 billion by 2030 as agentic AI spreads.
"As mainstream use of agentic AI increases, CPUs will become even more important in handling multiple tasks at the same time," said Nam Yong-soo, head of the ETF division at Korea Investment Trust Management. "The strength of the ACE US CPU Semiconductor TOP3+ ETF is that it lets investors buy everything from leading CPU companies to server rack makers in one product."