There is a memory ETF now. It trades on the Cboe BZX exchange under the ticker DRAM, it launched on April 2, 2026, it charges 0.65%, and the issuer calls it a “pure play” — the first-ever memory stock ETF.
Roughly half of that pure play is two companies listed in Seoul.
The Korea ETF that most American investors already know — EWY — holds 44.3% in the same two names. Different fund, different label, same two stocks. The labels differ more than the holdings do.
What this means if you are shopping for memory exposure. The decision in front of you is not really “how much Samsung and SK Hynix do I want.” Both wrappers give you roughly the same answer to that. The decision is what sits next to them — Korean banks and carmakers, or Micron and Kioxia.
1. What is actually inside the memory ETF
These are the published holdings for August 17, 2026, with each company’s lines added together.
| Company | Weight in DRAM | Listed where |
|---|---|---|
| Samsung Electronics (KRX: 005930) | ~25.5 | Seoul |
| Micron Technology | ~25.4 | United States |
| SK Hynix (KRX: 000660) | ~21.0 | Seoul, plus a small NASDAQ ADR line |
| Seagate, SanDisk, Western Digital | ~14.2 | United States |
| Kioxia, CXMT, Nanya, Winbond, Macronix | Remainder | Japan, China, Taiwan |
Samsung and SK Hynix together come to about 46% — roughly 1.8 times the Micron line, inside a fund whose pitch never mentions Korea.
You do not have to take that arithmetic on trust. Roundhill publishes its own country breakdown, and on its fact sheet dated June 30, 2026 it put South Korea at 49.04% of the fund — the largest country by a distance, ahead of the United States at 39.51%. Its three biggest positions that day were Micron 25.81%, Samsung Electronics 25.04% and SK hynix 23.99%. The prospectus carries “South Korea Risk” as a named risk factor. The issuer and our arithmetic land in the same place, seven weeks apart.
2. The Korea ETF is not more concentrated. It is differently concentrated.
EWY holds 80-odd names. Samsung Electronics is 23.04% and SK Hynix 21.24% — 44.28% between them, on the August 20, 2026 holdings. That is a figure we have had to correct against stock screeners before, so expect it to disagree with whatever your broker’s screen shows.
Different names, same two stocks, within a couple of points of the same weight (the two funds count weights differently and the snapshots are three sessions apart — the FAQ has that detail). Investors who avoided “Korea” and bought “memory” did not reduce their position in these two companies.
What differs is the remainder:
- EWY’s other 55.7% is KB Financial, Hyundai Motor, Shinhan, Hanwha Aerospace and about eighty more Korean holdings. Take the top two out and it is still Korea.
- DRAM’s remainder is Micron, Seagate, SanDisk, Western Digital, Kioxia, CXMT and Taiwanese memory makers. Take the top two out and Korea essentially disappears.
Concentration in the two names is similar. Country concentration is not.
Under the Gat. Fund names are marketing. Holdings files are not. The word on the ticker tells you what the issuer thinks you want to buy; the holdings tell you what you bought. In this case a fund with “memory” in its pitch and a fund with “South Korea” in its name arrive at almost the same two-stock position by two different routes. View, not advice.
3. If you bought “semiconductors,” you barely bought memory
There is a third route, and it is the one most Americans actually take.
| Fund | Micron weight | Holdings | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOXX — iShares Semiconductor | 8.18% | 34 | Aug 13, 2026 |
| SMH — VanEck Semiconductor | 4.74% | 26 | Jul 30, 2026 |
Neither Samsung Electronics nor SK Hynix appears in the published holdings of either fund. We are not saying they are absent — SOXX discloses 25 of 34 positions and the undisclosed nine are each under 0.84%; SMH discloses 25 of 26 and the missing line is under 0.19%. If they are in there at all, each is under 1%.
Which means the world’s two largest DRAM makers are, at most, a rounding error in America’s two flagship chip ETFs. Buy SOXX for memory and you get 8% of it.
4. Last week the three of them went three different ways
Over the five US sessions from the August 14 close to the August 21 close:
| Fund | Week | Worst day (Aug 18) |
|---|---|---|
| DRAM — memory | +0.63% | −8.76% |
| EWY — Korea | −0.78% | −8.13% |
| SOXX — semiconductors | −5.52% | −4.96% |
Over the same span the KOSPI fell 0.93% in Seoul, from 6,977.94 to 6,912.94 (the August 20 and 21 closes are from Korean press reports, not read from an exchange file).
Investors who bought “semiconductors” lost the most. Investors who bought “memory” were the only ones who made anything. The spread between those two was 6.1 percentage points in five sessions. The difference in what the two funds hold likely had a lot to do with that — though we have not decomposed the return by holding, so we stop short of naming which position did what.
One observation does survive. On Thursday August 20 in Seoul, Samsung Electronics rose 9.49% and SK Hynix 12.73% (press figures), on a report that Samsung was preparing a shareholder return program of up to ₩110 trillion — roughly US$78 billion, depending on the rate used — and on SK Hynix’s ₩40 trillion (roughly US$28 billion) buyback and cancellation. Samsung’s board approved its program the following day. SOXX rose 0.52% that day. A day driven entirely by Korean news barely registered in the US chip ETF.
5. The second way to look: not what, but when
Most American readers learned about last week the same way. “Korean stocks fell 5.8% on Wednesday.” True — the Seoul close on August 19 was 6,471.17, down 5.80%.
But Wednesday was not the worst day for anyone holding EWY.
| US session | DRAM | EWY | SOXX |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon Aug 17 — Seoul closed for a holiday | +5.36% | +2.98% | +1.58% |
| Tue Aug 18 | −8.76% | −8.13% | −4.96% |
| Wed Aug 19 — Seoul −5.80% | +0.07% | +2.58% | −2.21% |
| Thu Aug 20 — Seoul +5.89% | +4.43% | +2.14% | +0.52% |
| Fri Aug 21 | +0.17% | +0.10% | −0.44% |
The New York session on Tuesday, August 18 runs from 10:30 p.m. Tuesday to 5:00 a.m. Wednesday in Seoul. It closes a few hours before the Korean market opens. EWY fell 8.13% and DRAM 8.76% in that window — before Seoul opened sharply lower on Wednesday morning.
And on Wednesday, the day of the crash everyone read about, EWY rose 2.58% in New York.
Under the Gat. Both markets were reacting to the same thing — a sharp rise in 30-year government bond yields in the US, Japan and the UK, and oil. Higher long rates hurt the most expensively valued assets first, which right now means AI hardware; memory is levered to that trade in Seoul and in New York alike. New York simply opens first. Sequence is not causation, and I am not claiming it is. But the practical fact stands for anyone holding this exposure in a US account: by the time the Korean headline reaches you, the price has usually already moved. That matters little if you are holding for years, and a great deal if you are trading the news. View, not advice.
6. Four doors, four different things
| Route | Samsung + SK Hynix | What the rest is | As of |
|---|---|---|---|
| DRAM (Roundhill Memory ETF) | ~46% | Micron, Kioxia, CXMT, Taiwanese memory | Aug 17 |
| EWY (iShares MSCI South Korea) | 44.3% | 80-odd Korean holdings | Aug 20 |
| SOXX / SMH | Under 1% each, if present | Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, TSMC, equipment | Aug 13 / Jul 30 |
| SKHY (NASDAQ ADR — not a fund) | SK Hynix alone | Nothing | — |
One difference the table cannot show: DRAM reaches part of that exposure through swaps rather than owning the shares, and the issuer’s prospectus lists counterparty and credit risk among the fund’s risks as a result. EWY, SOXX and SMH hold their positions outright.
The last row is worth a note. The memory ETF holds SK Hynix twice — a large Seoul position and a small NASDAQ ADR line. It is the same company at two prices inside one fund, and those two prices are worth comparing before you pick a door.
The conclusion
America got a memory ETF this year, and by the issuer’s own fact sheet 49.04% of it was South Korea at the end of June. On August holdings, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix work out to about 46%. The Korea ETF holds 44.3% in the same two. None of those numbers is printed on the thing you are buying.
Last week those two funds and the broad chip funds went three separate ways — +0.63%, −0.78% and −5.52% — while the Korean index itself moved less than a percent. And the sharpest single day for the two US-listed wrappers landed a day before the crash that made the headlines.
What you own is not on the ticker. It is in the holdings file, and the holdings file is free.
Not financial advice — a view from Seoul, not a recommendation to buy or sell. The author holds no position in any security or fund mentioned. All Korean index and share prices are the KRX regular-session close (15:30 Seoul). Fund weights and US closing prices are as of the dates stated; the roughly 46% figure is our own calculation from published holdings, described in section 1.
Sources
- Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) fact sheet, as of June 30, 2026 (primary — issuer document) — the geographic breakdown (South Korea 49.04%, US 39.51%, Japan 4.36%, Taiwan 3.90%, China 3.07%), the top holdings (Micron 25.81%, Samsung 25.04%, SK hynix 23.99%), $26.1bn in assets, 17 holdings, the 0.65% expense ratio, the April 2, 2026 inception, the Cboe BZX listing, and the swap-inclusive weight methodology
- Roundhill Investments — DRAM fund page (primary — issuer) — the “first-ever memory stock ETF” and “pure play” descriptions, active management, and the “South Korea Risk” factor
- Published fund holdings via StockAnalysis.com, sourced from Finnhub (⚠️ secondary — vendor aggregation of issuer files, not read from the issuers’ own holdings files) — DRAM line items as of August 17, 2026; EWY as of August 20, 2026; SOXX as of August 13, 2026; SMH as of July 30, 2026
- US closing prices via StockAnalysis.com, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence (secondary) — DRAM, EWY and SOXX daily closes, August 14–21, 2026
- Korea Exchange (KRX) regular-session closes, 15:30 Seoul — KOSPI 6,977.94 on August 14 and 6,471.17 on August 19. ⚠️ The August 20 and August 21 closes (6,852.58 and 6,912.94) and the Samsung +9.49% / SK Hynix +12.73% moves on August 20 are from Korean press reports, cross-checked against each other but not read from an exchange file
- Our own calculation — the roughly 46% Korea share of DRAM’s August memory exposure, the ~25.5 / ~21.0 / ~25.4 company groupings, and every weekly and daily return above, computed by TheGatBull from the figures listed here
Written by Mr.Gat — TheGatBull
Korean market coverage from a Seoul-metro-based operator who reads the filings in the original language. Every price on this site is the KRX regular-session close (15:30 Seoul); every figure states whether it came from a primary filing, the press, or our own calculation. Drafts are AI-assisted, then verified against the original Korean documents and edited by a human before publishing.
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