How A Global Memory Chip Boom Crowned A New Stock Market Leader

Peter, it's so great to have you here.

Really excited to have this conversation.

Thank you.

Thanks for the welcome.

Very glad to meet you and your audience.

Now, the Cosby has been getting headlines for being one of the world's best performing indexes so far in 2026.

And Peter, I think for many, this rally feels reminiscent to the Nasdaq in the late 90s dot com era.

From your perspective, what's driving this price action? Is this performance bad? based on a structural re-rating of Korean equities, or do you see this more as traders chasing that momentum AI trade?

It's actually both and neither.

I've had a lot of comments about how at least the price section and just the retail fervor is reminiscent of the TMT bubble of the late 90s.

I remind them there are a couple of very, very key differences that should make us feel a little better.

First is that this AI fervor is earnings-backed.

It's real money that are being earned by companies, which is reflective of Korean stock market, despite the spectacular rally, trading on par with historical average on PE basis.

I think that is a fundamental anchor that we can hold on to.

Clearly, the performance year today and last year would make everyone uncomfortable, but I think that discomfort should really be on a short-term technical basis.

but not so much on the fundamental basis.

As far as your question regarding is this reflective of overall stock market re-rating, AI trade is one of three drivers for Korean market.

First one is AI.

Second one is the market reform that the Korean government initiated from about two years ago.

And third one is ultra aggressive, very momentum driven retail investment sentiment coming from Koreans.

Those three are all working together to make this powerful drive.

But again, Normally, whenever Korean retailers get involved, I get really nervous because they tend to be overly enthusiastic about a trend.

But this time, the fact that the AI, which probably I estimate about 70% of this year's gains is from the AI team, is earnings-backed.

So I don't think we are anywhere near the end of this run.

And looking closer at that AI trade, two companies, SK Hynix and Samsung, have driven a bulk of the growth in Korean equities.