Temasek's First Foray into South Korea: Why Bet on Storage Chips with $404.5 Billion of "Long Money"?
On August 12, a piece of news sent the South Korean stock market into a frenzy.
The KOSPI index surged nearly 5% intraday. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix shares both soared over 8%.
By August 13, KOSPI had rebounded more than 22% from its July 30 low, re-entering a technical bull market.
In just 10 days, it climbed back from the abyss.
The trigger wasn’t earnings reports or the Federal Reserve, but the name of one institution—
Temasek.
The Singapore sovereign wealth fund managing about $404.5 billion in assets plans to invest directly in the South Korean stock market for the first time.
Its targets are two companies: Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
This is not short-term speculation.
This is the world’s top-tier "long money" positioning itself ahead of the AI hardware second half.
Let’s look at some numbers.
In July this year, the South Korean stock market plunged 22%, marking its worst monthly performance since the global financial crisis. Leveraged positions were forcibly liquidated, and retail investors lost hundreds of billions of dollars.
Foreign investors have net withdrawn over $100 billion from the South Korean stock market this year.
Everyone was running away.
Then Temasek arrived.
And the way it chose to enter is highly unusual—
using internal personnel to invest directly rather than outsourcing to external asset management firms.
Investment bankers interpret this as a strong sign of Temasek’s confidence in its judgment.
In plain terms: it’s not a trial; it’s all in. Not outsourcing to fund companies to casually buy some shares, but insiders personally taking heavy positions.
So why is Temasek so confident?
Two reasons.
First, it is "filling a gap."
Temasek has long been positioned in the AI track—NVIDIA, TSMC, ASML, OpenAI, Anthropic.
But storage chips have always been the missing key piece in its semiconductor portfolio.
Samsung and SK Hynix are that missing piece.
Second, it believes storage chips are severely undervalued.
Temasek’s judgment is that within the AI value chain, the memory semiconductor sector is the most undervalued.
Note, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix’s stock prices have already risen over 880% from last year’s lows.
Nearly 9 times up, yet Temasek still says undervalued.
It’s like at an auction, an item has surged from 1 million to 10 million, and suddenly someone says, "It can still go higher; I’ll pay 20 million."
You’re either crazy or you see something others don’t.
What does Temasek see?
A time dimension.
At its July briefing this year, the institution clearly stated: by 2031, AI-related investments will increase from the current 6% of the overall portfolio to as high as 15%.
In five years, more than doubling.
This is not quarterly allocation; this is a strategic shift.
Temasek defines AI semiconductors as "a long-term growth area driving industrial structural transformation, not a short-term craze."
While others panic sell due to "AI investment overheating," it is adding positions against the trend.
There’s one more chilling detail.
Temasek revealed to Bloomberg that it first invested in these two companies two years ago.
Two years ago.
Back then, ChatGPT wasn’t popular, HBM wasn’t discussed, and storage chips were still at the cycle bottom.
It was already in.
Now, when the market panics, leverages blow up, and foreign capital withdraws, it not only hasn’t fled but has increased its stake.
This is not bottom fishing. This is closing the net after two years of positioning.
One last question:
Samsung and SK Hynix’s stock prices have risen nearly 9 times; is Temasek buying at the peak now?
Samsung and SK Hynix’s forward P/E ratios are only 4.2 and 3.6 respectively, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index overall exceeds 21.
Global chip stocks average 21 times; these two are under 4 times.
Tell me, who’s at the peak? Who’s at the foot of the mountain?
When a fund managing $400 billion starts positioning, it’s not here to trade a rebound; it’s here to secure a spot.
$BTC$SKHYNIX$SAMSUNG#芯片股领涨，韩股十日反弹逾22%
Disclaimer: OKX Orbit content is provided for informational purposes only. Learn more
