Korean conglomerates are reducing their dependence on China.
Korean retail investors are doing the exact opposite: they are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into funds that bet on China’s humanoid robotics supply chain.
The details
Seven humanoid robotics ETFs are listed on the Korea Exchange: two focused on Korea, two on the US, two on China, and one global.
China ETFs: $444 million in assets under management.
Korea ETFs: $465 million, almost on par.
US ETFs: $288 million, significantly less.
The two China products come from Mirae Asset and Samsung Asset Management.
Mirae Asset’s fund, launched in May 2025, tracks China’s entire robotics supply chain and has gained 43% since listing. Samsung’s equivalent is slightly negative. US-focused robotics ETFs are up 15–30%, while one global fund has returned as much as 60%.
Margin vs. volume
In November, Goldman Sachs surveyed nine Chinese suppliers, including Sanhua and Tuopu Group. These companies are planning capacity for 100,000 to 1 million robot units per year, even though no large-scale orders have been confirmed yet.
At Agibot, Unitree, and UBTech, currently the largest humanoid producers by unit volume, the supply chain is almost entirely Chinese.
Lee Jong-min of Mirae Asset compares the robotics supply chain to the EV industry: motors, actuators, rare earths, the critical components for humanoid robots, are in some cases sourced exclusively from China.
The investors’ bet: if unit volumes rise, margins will scale across the entire supply chain.
The same bet worked five years ago with EV suppliers, before CATL and BYD came to dominate the global market.
On top of that, China’s stock market is valued much more cheaply relative to GDP than the US market, leaving room for a rerating.
👉 Sources: Korea Herald, Business Korea, Humanoids Daily
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