Investors who spent the past two years piling into South Korean memory chip stocks and Japanese semiconductor plays are rotating into Chinese equity derivatives, drawn by more attractive valuations in Beijing’s expanding tech ecosystem. Offshore perpetual futures on Chinese companies such as Unitree Robotics (105 million dollars in volume within 24 hours after its IPO) and CXMT (66 million dollars in open interest following its July 2026 listing) are registering record volumes. Fund manager Value Partners sold its Taiwanese and South Korean AI positions starting August 2025 to redeploy capital into cheaper Chinese firms, while South Korean retail investors poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Chinese semiconductor and AI stocks in early 2026. The Star 50 index, which tracks innovation-focused companies on the Shanghai Star Market, posted approximately 29% year-to-date returns through mid-August 2026, comfortably outpacing the broader CSI 300.
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