Samsung Active Asset, KoAct Global Climate Tech Infrastructure... "14% Return After Listing"

Investors' perceptions of the core infrastructure of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry are changing. Investment targets are rapidly expanding from semiconductor hardware equipment such as graphics processing units (GPUs) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to power sources and infrastructure necessary for operating these AI devices.

Samsung Active Asset Management announced on the 19th that the KoAct Global Climate Tech Infrastructure Active ETF, which focuses intensively on low-carbon energy and power infrastructure, has recorded a 14.0% return since its listing.

This is because the power infrastructure-related companies and low-carbon energy companies invested in by the KoAct Global Climate Tech Infrastructure Active ETF have posted results exceeding expectations and significantly raised their future outlooks, leading to substantial stock price increases.

Listed on the 18th of last month, the KoAct Global Climate Tech Infrastructure Active ETF invests not only in climate tech companies with carbon reduction technologies such as wind power, solar power, nuclear power, ESS (Energy Storage System), and virtual power plants but also in core infrastructure companies related to power grids and renewable energy power plant construction.

This ETF evenly holds low-carbon energy companies such as GE (General Electric) 8%, Enphase Energy 6%, NextTracker 5%, and infrastructure companies such as Eaton 7%, Quanta Services 6%, Schneider Electric 6%, and HD Hyundai Electric 3%. By region, it is composed of 72% in the U.S., 15% in Europe, and 9% in Korea, and by industry, it invests 30% in solar power, 29% in power infrastructure, 25% in wind power, and 9% in hydrogen.

In particular, major U.S. investment companies such as NextTracker, Enphase Energy, Eaton, and GE showed high increases of 33.2%, 26.6%, 12.8%, and 12.6%, respectively, in February after their earnings announcements. The domestic company HD Hyundai Electric also recorded a 12.9% increase, leading to the strong performance of the KoAct Global Climate Tech Infrastructure Active ETF.

Samsung Active Asset Management, which manages this product, noted that the industry, which had been sluggish due to cancellations or delays of development projects for low-carbon power plants requiring large-scale investments amid the ongoing interest rate hike trend aimed at reducing global liquidity, is regaining momentum recently due to expectations of interest rate cuts. Since last year, with the emergence of AI GPT gaining new attention, there is a growing forecast that hyperscale data centers requiring high power will rapidly increase. They are focusing on the fact that the future performance of power industry companies, especially low-carbon energy and power infrastructure companies, is expected to increase sharply, and this outlook is beginning to be reflected in the stock prices of related companies.

In fact, Microsoft, which is leading the AI era by introducing Chat GPT, signed a long-term supply contract for 12GW of solar modules with Korea’s solar specialist Hanwha Solutions from 2025 to 2032 in January. The 12GW corresponds to the amount of power that 4 million households in Seoul can use in one year and is half of the total U.S. solar installation capacity of 24GW in 2022. This movement is not limited to Microsoft; big tech companies aiming to lead the AI industry are competing to announce plans to build high-power data centers, which is expected to accelerate the growth of the power industry in the future.

Kim Hyosik, a team leader at Samsung Active Asset Management, said, “Currently, the portfolio has a high proportion of U.S. onshore wind, utility solar power, and power infrastructure companies where the effects of the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) are beginning to fully materialize. These companies saw a significant recovery in orders last year, and from this year, a substantial increase in installations is expected, leading to improved corporate performance.”