Samsung Asset Management has set “AI bottleneck” as a key investment theme for exchange-traded funds in the second half of the year.

Samsung Asset Management said on June 29 it selected AI bottlenecks as an ETF keyword investors should watch in the second half.

Earlier this year, Samsung Asset Management presented “da-ban-jeon” — meaning benchmark indices, semiconductors and power — as an investment theme and forecast an expansion of the AI industry. For the second half, it said investors should focus on physical and technological limits that inevitably emerge as the AI ecosystem grows.

Samsung Asset Management explained that as AI technology becomes more advanced and is applied more in everyday life, constraints arise in computing, energy, data transmission and physical space. It said companies that address these issues could draw investor interest.

The first bottleneck it cited was semiconductor computing capacity. As AI model parameters increase, demand for high-performance AI chips to process vast amounts of data is outstripping supply. Samsung Asset Management forecast that companies with next-generation semiconductor manufacturing, design and packaging technologies will gain value.

The second is power. Running and cooling large AI data centres requires massive amounts of electricity. As a result, grid overload and shortages in power infrastructure are emerging as constraints on AI industry growth.

The third is a network bottleneck. As AI computing volumes rise, the importance of communications networks without delays is increasing in data centre operations and in global data transmission.

Samsung Asset Management said ultra-high-speed data transmission technology that uses light beyond copper wiring is emerging as a key solution.

The fourth is the limit of physical space. With space shortages growing in the expansion of AI data centres, power generation and communications networks, companies seeking to use outer space are drawing attention.

Samsung Asset Management also pointed to robotics, all-solid-state batteries and energy storage system (ESS) technology as next-generation bottleneck areas.

Kim Do-hyung (김도형), head of ETF Consulting at Samsung Asset Management, said companies that break through AI bottlenecks will draw investors’ attention in the second half. He said he expects stock market volatility to expand further and urged investors to broaden their focus beyond semiconductors to include power, networks and space.