Humanoid Robot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that were listed in large numbers in April–May this year are posting divergent investment results depending on their included asset and management strategies.
Active products that are run aggressively and target global Humanoid Robot corporations generated excess returns over the index, and U.S.-centered thematic products also delivered relatively strong performance. Among products investing in Chinese Humanoid Robot companies, returns diverged by more than 10 percentage points (p) depending on the constituents.
According to the Korea Exchange (KRX) on the 30th, over the past five months (May 30–Oct. 29) Hanwha Asset Management's "PLUS Global Humanoid Robot Active" ETF rose 39.44%. Excluding China, this ETF selects and invests in Humanoid Robot-related corporations listed on global stock markets including the United States, Korea, and Japan. Over the past three months, it outperformed its underlying index by 8.83 percentage points, recording a higher return than U.S. thematic products.
In particular, it boosted returns by holding a large weight in U.S. Tesla (20.24%), which has shown a steep rally since September. It also included domestic robot, actuator (joints), and sensor-related component suppliers such as ROBOTIS (8.49%), Rainbow Robotics (8.39%), and SAMHYUN (3.84%), benefiting from the upswing in these stocks.
Recently, as expectations for factory automation grew ahead of the implementation of the "yellow envelope law, a new labor law aimed at strengthening the bargaining rights of subcontract workers," domestic robot-related corporations saw their share prices trend higher. In addition, with the new government pledging investment in physical artificial intelligence (AI) and general-purpose Humanoid technologies with the goal of making the Humanoid Robot industry one of the world's top three by 2030, a warm tailwind has spread across domestic robot stocks.
KB Asset Management's "RISE U.S. Humanoid Robot" ETF (36.1%) and Samsung Asset Management's "KODEX U.S. Humanoid Robot" ETF (34.5%) also posted gains in the 30% range. Both products invest in the U.S. Humanoid Robot value chain. Listed simultaneously on Apr. 15 along with the earlier active ETF, they far outpaced the Nasdaq Composite's gain (27.16%) over the past five months.
The two products have similar constituents, including Tesla, Nvidia, Palantir, and Intuitive Surgical. However, as Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) recently delivered a third-quarter "earnings surprise" and its share price surged, the RISE product, which tracks the index that relatively overweighted the stock, appears to have posted slightly higher performance.
By contrast, return gaps were pronounced among China-themed ETFs. Over the same period, Mirae Asset Global Investments' "TIGER China Humanoid Robot" ETF rose 41.6%, while Samsung Asset Management's "KODEX China Humanoid Robot" ETF gained only 29.03%.
Both products, listed in May last year, each hold 20 constituents, but with only eight overlapping names, they showed wide differences in composition. In particular, Mirae Asset Global Investments said the exclusive inclusion of China's SamHwa (9.23%), which develops actuators that serve as robot joints, widened the performance gap.
An official at Mirae Asset Global Investments said, "As demand has concentrated on corporations truly related to Humanoid, rather than the legacy robot industry, clear differentiation in performance among products has emerged."