[Weekend Money] U.S. Beats China in Humanoid ETFs

Number of Domestically Listed Humanoid ETFs Rises to 12
Strong Start Early in the Year, but Stock Performance Sluggish Since March
Earnings Forecasts Diverge: U.S. Up, China Down... Stock Prices Follow Suit

As interest in humanoids and physical artificial intelligence (AI) continues to grow, the number of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) investing in humanoids is also increasing. In addition to domestic humanoid-related ETFs, ETFs related to the United States and China have also been listed. It has been found that U.S. humanoid ETFs, which are outperforming in terms of earnings, are showing better profitability than their Chinese counterparts.

According to Shinhan Investment Corp., the number of domestically listed humanoid ETFs has increased to 12. By investment region, there are five K-humanoid ETFs, three global humanoid ETFs, two U.S. humanoid ETFs, and two China humanoid ETFs. Among these, eight ETFs explicitly include the word "humanoid" in their product names.

Woo-Yeol Park, a researcher at Shinhan Investment Corp., explained, "Starting in April 2025, ETFs began to adopt the term 'humanoid' instead of the generic term 'robot.' The combined market capitalization of the five K-humanoid ETFs has increased from 800 billion won at the beginning of the year to 2.2 trillion won as of now."

Although humanoid ETFs attracted significant attention at the beginning of the year, they have underperformed since March. Researcher Park analyzed, "The TIGER Korea Humanoid Robot Industry ETF, which was listed early in the year, surged 60% in just one month, but since March, robot stocks overall have been underperforming the market. This is because leading stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have proven their performance, making it difficult for portfolios that reduced large-cap allocations and increased exposure to small- and mid-cap IT stocks to outperform the index." He added, "However, there has been a rebound starting in April."

Among domestically listed ETFs, the China Humanoid ETF ranks second after the K-humanoid ETFs in terms of both assets under management (AUM) and trading volume. China holds a large number of robot patents, recently surpassed the U.S. in the number of AI talent, and is regarded as a leader in the mass production of low-cost robots. Nevertheless, the China Humanoid ETF's recent share price has been sluggish. Park analyzed, "This is not due to issues with robots themselves, but rather because profit forecasts for Chinese tech stocks have been continuously revised downward since the beginning of the year, dragging related stocks down as well."

KODEX and TIGER are competing with products both named 'China Humanoid Robot.' TIGER has selected Dobot, UBTECH, Zhejiang Sanhua Intelligent Control, Xiaopeng, and iFlytek as its top five holdings, while KODEX has chosen Inovance Technology, Wolong Electric, UBTECH, Leaderdrive, and Lingyizhao. The only stock included in the top five for both ETFs is UBTECH, which mass-produces the Walker S2 humanoid and supplies it to factories.

When comparing this year's stock performance of physical AI companies, Chinese firms have underperformed, while U.S. companies have performed well. A comparison of the one-month and three-month earnings revision ratios for stocks included in humanoid ETFs confirms the advantage of U.S. companies. Park stated, "As earnings for Chinese tech stocks overall continue to decline, earnings forecasts for stocks included in the China Humanoid ETF are also being revised downward. In contrast, companies included in U.S. Humanoid ETFs are seeing overall earnings growth. The leading contributors to earnings growth within the humanoid value chain are Teradyne, Intuitive Surgical, and Rockwell, in that order."

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