Temasek is preparing a new round of investment in Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, a move that would mark its first entry into the South Korean stock market, according to a BlockBeats report published on Aug. 12.
Government departments and institutions cited in the report said Temasek recently decided to invest in the two companies and has been in contact with the South Korean government to discuss when the investment will be carried out.
The report said Temasek plans to execute the investment through its own internal team instead of appointing an external asset management company.
One official from South Korea’s financial authorities said, 「As I understand it, after the government approved single-stock leveraged ETFs, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix saw extreme share-price volatility, and Temasek communicated with us about the timing of entering the market.」
This would be Temasek’s first investment in South Korean equities. According to the report, the fund believes memory semiconductors are among the most undervalued segments in the artificial intelligence, or AI, value chain.
An investment banking industry source said, 「Temasek’s investment style is to inject large-scale capital into industries that hold dominant market positions from a long-term perspective,」 and added, 「Although Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have risen more than 880% from last year’s lows, this move shows Temasek still believes there is room for further upside.」
Even as concerns about overheating have cooled enthusiasm for AI-related investing, Temasek is still increasing its exposure across the broader AI value chain.
In the second quarter of this year, the firm concentrated investments in semiconductors, data centers, cloud services, AI model developers and software infrastructure. It plans to lift the share of AI-related assets in its total portfolio from 6% to as much as 15% over the next five years.
Temasek views AI semiconductors as a long-term growth engine driving structural change in the industry rather than a short-lived trend, and it plans to expand investments on that basis.
According to Temasek’s 13F holdings report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 7, the firm held shares of Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as of the end of June, and also owned stock in ASML, the Dutch lithography equipment maker.
Temasek is also one of the major institutional investors in generative AI developers including OpenAI and Anthropic, the report said.
Temasek is a state-owned investment company wholly owned by Singapore’s Ministry of Finance. As of the end of March this year, it managed S$518 billion in assets, equivalent to about 572 trillion won.