Timefolio Asset Management's 'TIME China AI Tech Active ETF' Achieves 59.98% One-Year Return

Active exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that focus on core companies within the artificial intelligence (AI) value chain are rapidly increasing their net assets, delivering outstanding results and significantly outperforming major indices in Greater China.

According to the Korea Exchange and FnGuide, as of September 7, 2026, the 'TIME China AI Tech Active' ETF, managed by Timefolio Asset Management, recorded a one-year return of 59.98%. This ranked first among 57 domestically listed ETFs investing in Greater China—including China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan—(including leveraged and inverse products, but excluding hybrid products mixing Korea and other regions). Since its listing on May 13, 2025, the ETF has achieved a cumulative return of 81.99%, and its assets under management (AUM) have grown to 335.3 billion won.

This impressive performance is attributed to the fund’s management strategy, which does not approach the Greater China stock market as a single national market, but instead precisely targets 'structurally growing industries' within it. Rather than being limited by listing location—whether mainland China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan—the ETF selectively includes only key beneficiary companies that are directly connected to AI investment expansion, flexibly adjusting sector allocations according to industry trends.

Generally, passive ETFs that simply track representative indices in Greater China have limitations when it comes to fully capturing the explosive growth of the AI industry in their portfolios. Even technology-centric indices face restrictions on which stocks they can include. For example, the STAR50 Index on Shanghai's Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR Market) includes some AI-related companies, but since it is limited to companies listed only on the STAR Market in Shanghai, it cannot include core AI value-chain companies that are based in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Shenzhen. In fact, according to Bloomberg, as of September 7, the won-denominated one-year returns were 0.79% for the Hang Seng Tech Index, 5.58% for the CSI300, and 30.55% for the STAR50, revealing a significant gap compared to the performance of the aforementioned ETF.

Major holdings in the ETF include Z.AI (5.53%), Elite Material (5.19%), Zhongjienolight (5.08%), Nanya Technology (5.02%), Eoptolink (4.92%), and MediaTek (4.41%).

Currently, the AI industry in China has entered a period of rapid growth. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the country’s average daily use of AI tokens surged from approximately 100 billion at the beginning of 2024 to over 140 trillion as of March 2026. In addition, Alibaba announced that revenue for its AI cloud and computing services segment in the June quarter of this year reached 48.4 billion yuan, marking a 45% increase year-on-year, and in August the company also raised funds totaling 80 billion Hong Kong dollars to invest in AI infrastructure.

A Timefolio Asset Management representative stated, "The Chinese AI industry is now entering a full-fledged period of growth, with both infrastructure investment and actual usage rapidly expanding." The representative also commented, "We will continue to manage our funds by focusing on powerful growth opportunities emerging within the AI sector itself, rather than simply following the overall performance of Greater China markets."

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