Ahead of Anthropic's IPO... 'Agentic AI' Wave Sweeps ETFs Too

Inclusion Expected If Anthropic and OpenAI Go Public
New Products Launched by Samsung and NH-Amundi

Amid the success of Meta’s ‘Muse’ and the IPO momentum among artificial intelligence (AI) startups, domestic exchange-traded funds (ETFs) covering related themes are being launched one after another in Korea. Even within the same theme, products are differentiated by investment strategies such as the concentration of their holdings.

According to the financial investment industry on October 6, Samsung Asset Management is scheduled to list ‘KODEX US AI Agent Active’ on October 13. The benchmark index is the ‘Index US AI Agents Index,’ which consists of U.S.-listed stocks selected using keyword scoring and large language models (LLMs) to focus on companies most closely related to the AI agent ecosystem.

The total expense ratio is set at 0.8%, marking the highest fee among Samsung Asset Management’s KODEX ETFs. Han Donghoon, the fund manager at Samsung Asset Management responsible for this ETF, explained, “Given the rapid changes in industry trends, the fast reflections in the stock market, and the relatively high volatility characteristics of this theme, more resources and strategic trading grounded in deeper research are required for this product, which is why the fee rate is set at this level.”

As an active ETF, it can timely incorporate promising AI agent-related stocks into its portfolio in line with prevailing trends, based on the manager’s discretion. There is also a possibility of incorporating stocks of Anthropic and OpenAI if they go public. Active ETFs can respond to new IPOs more swiftly than passive ETFs. Han further stated, “Upon new stock listings, an active ETF can include them immediately at the fund manager’s discretion. Specific methods and allocation weights will be determined after comprehensively assessing the stock’s upside potential and prevailing market conditions.”

Previously, NH-Amundi Asset Management listed ‘HANARO US Agentic AI TOP2+’ on September 15. This product invests in ten U.S.-listed companies involved in agentic AI and its supporting technology ecosystem, with a notable strategy of allocating 25% each to the top two companies possessing foundation models. As of October 1, the top holdings are Microsoft (23.5%), Alphabet (22.02%), and Meta (11.26%).

Although this is a passive ETF, its index methodology is designed so that if next-generation core agentic AI companies go public, they can be swiftly added to the portfolio. If Anthropic or OpenAI is listed, the fund will allocate the maximum weighting to these stocks and reflect them in the portfolio within three days.

Hanwha Asset Management moved quickly by launching ‘PLUS US AI Agent’ in May last year. This product also focuses on ten stocks, but its composition is different from that of the HANARO product. CrowdStrike, a provider of AI agent-based security solutions, has the largest proportion at 15.35%, followed by ServiceNow (11.04%) and IBM (10.56%). However, its one-year performance has been weak, posting a return of -15.17% over the past year.

Beyond these, ETFs that have been newly listed recently are showing a distinct focus on ‘AI’. Of the 24 ETFs newly listed in the second half of this year, seven—nearly 30%—have ‘AI’ explicitly stated in their product names.

As Meta’s Muse heats up the agentic AI market, analysts expect that not only big tech but related sectors such as security will also benefit. Shim Jihyun, a researcher at Shinhan Investment & Securities, commented, “With Meta launching Muse, it is now widely recognized that the era of the personal agent has truly begun. The agent trend is driving the stock prices of various infrastructure-related themes, not just Meta, and momentum is especially strong in the field of cybersecurity.”

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