[Exclusive] Singapore's Temasek to Invest in Samsung and SK hynix... 'First Investment in Korean Stock Market'

Temasek, one of Asia's largest sovereign wealth funds, is making new investments in Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. This marks the first time Temasek is investing in the Korean stock market.

Reuters Yonhap News.

According to relevant ministries and authorities on August 12, Temasek has recently decided to invest in Samsung Electronics and SK hynix and has been in contact with the Korean government to discuss the timing of the investment execution.

The investment is reported to be made through direct investment by Temasek's in-house team, instead of outsourcing to external asset management firms. An official from the financial authorities said, "We understand that Temasek has approached us to discuss the timing of its capital allocation amid extreme volatility in the share prices of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix following the government's recent approval of single-stock leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs)." This is the first time Temasek is investing in the Korean stock market.

Temasek is reported to consider the memory semiconductor sector within the artificial intelligence (AI) value chain as the most undervalued. An investment banking industry official noted, "Temasek has an investment style of allocating large-scale capital to industries that lead the market from a long-term perspective," adding, "Although Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have seen their share prices increase by more than 880% from last year's lows, Temasek's move demonstrates its confidence that there is further room for growth."

While concerns of an overheated AI investment boom have somewhat diminished in recent times, Temasek has continued to increase its bets across the AI value chain. In the second quarter of this year, the fund focused its investments on sectors such as semiconductors, data centers, cloud, AI model developers, and software infrastructure. Temasek aims to dramatically raise the proportion of AI-related investments in its overall portfolio from the current 6% to as much as 15% within the next five years. The company sees AI semiconductors not as a short-term craze but as a long-term growth area that will drive changes in industry structure, and plans to further expand its investments accordingly.

According to Temasek's Form 13F holdings disclosure filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on August 7, the fund held stakes in Nvidia, TSMC, and ASML—the Netherlands-based global leader in semiconductor lithography equipment—as of the end of June. Temasek is also among the major institutional investors backing generative AI developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Entirely owned by Singapore’s Ministry of Finance, Temasek managed assets worth 518 billion Singapore dollars (approximately 572 trillion won) as of March this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.