Agentic AI Advances Fuel CPU Demand Hopes... ETFs Set to Benefit [Weekend Money]

Yuanta Securities Recommends iShares SOXX ETF
KODEX US AI Semiconductor TOP3 Plus ETF

As agentic AI, which plans, calls tools and performs multiple tasks on its own, advances, the role of central processing units (CPUs) is expanding. Analysts say exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with high exposure to CPUs could be a good investment vehicle.

In a recent report titled "Agentic AI: Getting CPUs Moving Again," Ko Kyung-beom, an analyst at Yuanta Securities, said, "Meta's AI assistant, Muse, is demonstrating the potential to monetize consumer-facing agentic AI, which we believe will lead to earnings growth for CPU companies."

Screenshot of a Yuanta Securities report

According to Ko, the generative AI market has grown around graphics processing units (GPUs), but the role of CPUs is also expanding as AI evolves into agentic AI that acts on its own. Traditional large language models (LLMs) are centered on a single-computation structure in which a request is entered and inference is performed on a GPU. Agentic AI, by contrast, interprets user requests and carries out multiple tasks in sequence, including planning, searching for data, calling external tools and executing code. In this process, CPUs connect tasks and coordinate their order through orchestration. As a result, CPUs account for a larger share in agentic AI environments than in traditional LLM environments. AMD forecasts that the server CPU market, driven by agentic AI, will grow from $25 billion last year to $220 billion by 2030.

Ko said expectations of this growth have begun to be reflected in CPU-related stocks. Following Intel's earnings announcement in April 2026, expectations for increased CPU demand amid the expansion of AI and inference workloads came to the fore, driving up not only Intel but also AMD and Arm Holdings. Since then, CPU-related stocks have outperformed Nvidia, a leading GPU stock. In particular, CPU-related stocks rallied again after Meta unveiled its AI assistant, Muse. Since its launch on September 8, Muse has gained traction faster initially than major AI products, generating real consumer demand.

Ko recommended iShares' semiconductor ETF, SOXX, and the KODEX US AI Semiconductor TOP3 Plus ETF. SOXX invests in 30 U.S. semiconductor companies, including CPU, GPU and memory chip makers. Ko said that, among semiconductor ETFs, it has relatively higher exposure to CPU-related companies than to GPU-related companies. He added, "It can help investors respond to the trend of AI computing demand expanding from GPUs to CPUs as agentic AI becomes more widespread." The KODEX ETF focuses on leading companies in GPUs, ASICs and CPUs that are driving the AI semiconductor industry. He emphasized, "Its exposure to CPU companies is high, at 34.2%, making it well positioned to benefit directly from the expansion of agentic AI. It also holds Nvidia, reflecting both the established growth of GPUs and the emerging increase in CPU demand."

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