KB Asset Management, ‘RISE AI & Robot ETF’ Shows Outstanding Short-Term Performance

Amid the surging interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and the robotics industry, KB Asset Management's 'RISE AI&Robot ETF' is gaining attention for its outstanding performance.

According to FnGuide, a fund rating agency, as of the 8th, the 'RISE AI&Robot ETF' recorded a one-month return of 18.05%, the highest among robotics-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed domestically.

This performance is largely influenced by Samsung Electronics' recent significant expansion of investments in robotics-specialized companies, which has sharply increased market interest in robotics-related investment products.

At the end of last year, Samsung Electronics increased its stake in the domestic robotics company Rainbow Robotics from 14.7% to 35.0%, becoming the largest shareholder. Consequently, Rainbow Robotics' stock price rose by 43.8% over the past year alone. Samsung Electronics is expected to accelerate the development of humanoid robots by integrating its AI technology with Rainbow Robotics' robotics hardware technology.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the expansion of automation, aging population, and declining birth rates have reduced the labor force, making the adoption of robots inevitable. AI and robotics are expected not to be short-term thematic issues but to continue the lineage of new technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as autonomous vehicles and blockchain.

Launched in October 2023, the ‘RISE AI&Robot ETF’ invests across the core value chain of robots’ brains (AI) and bodies (hardware). It diversely invests in companies related to AI software, robotics and automation, semiconductors and electronics, and the bioindustry.

While existing domestic robotics ETFs focus their portfolios on large-cap stocks, the ‘RISE AI&Robot ETF’ adds a sales relevance criterion to its stock inclusion standards, composing the portfolio of pure AI & robotics companies with high industry relevance. Therefore, its management performance is closely correlated with industry growth potential.

The total 26 constituent stocks are evenly distributed across AI and robotics sectors. Representative stocks include Rainbow Robotics (8.47%), Doosan Robotics (6.75%), SOS Lab (6.41%), NAVER (6.18%), and Neuromeka (4.85%).

Lee Dojin, a manager at KB Asset Management, explained, “The convergence of AI and robotics engineering is creating new investment opportunities in industrial automation and consumer services,” adding, “At CES 2025, robotics solutions will be highlighted as a major theme, further increasing the future investment appeal of this product that allows simultaneous investment in AI and robotics.”