Wall Street has a new way to chase the AI memory boom

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Wall Street has a new way to chase the AI memory boom.

stock :: 3hrs ago :: source - yahoo finance

By Jared Blikre

The AI memory boom has a new ticker, and Wall Street isn’t waiting around.

The Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM) is barely a month old, but traders are already treating it like the go-to vehicle for the trade. DRAM has traded only 24 sessions, as of Wednesday, but it’s already up around 70% and has hit an intraday record on 14 of them.

The launch has drawn comparisons to some of the ETF industry’s biggest recent hits.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas called DRAM “basically the $IBIT of thematic equity ETFs,” referring to BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF (IBIT) — a way of saying the fund has become the rare niche ETF that turns into a market event almost immediately. DRAM had about $3.3 billion in assets as of Tuesday after launching in early April.

DRAM did not create the memory trade. It arrived as the wrapper for a rally that was already going vertical.

Bloomberg Global Memory Index — 2002 to 2026. Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance

The Bloomberg Global Memory Index is up nearly 680% since the start of 2025 after two decades of memory cycles that now look small next to the AI-era move. Memory stocks have always been cyclical, but this move has turned the group into one of AI’s most aggressive supply-chain rallies.

DRAM is not a broad semiconductor fund. Its top holdings are the memory supply chain itself, led by Micron (MU), SK Hynix (000660.KS), Samsung (005930.KS), Sandisk (SNDK), Seagate (STX), and Western Digital (WDC). Samsung just became the latest public company to reach a $1 trillion valuation.

DRAM's top holdings are the memory supply chain itself, led by Micron, SK Hynix, Samsung, and Sandisk, among others. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The concentration is the point. Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung make up nearly 70% of the ETF, while the top seven holdings account for about 90%.

That also addresses a practical problem for US investors, with caveats. Samsung and SK Hynix are central to the memory trade, but neither has an easy US-listed ADR to buy. SK Hynix has filed for a US listing, but DRAM’s foreign-heavy portfolio means investors are getting access with an extra layer of liquidity, currency, and trading-hour risk.

For chip investors, the choice now comes down to how concentrated they want the bet to be. DRAM offers the dedicated basket — which means more direct memory exposure, but also less room for error if the trade reverses.

Micron is the purest large US-listed memory stock. Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate offer storage-linked exposure. Broad semiconductor ETFs such as VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) and iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) offer more diversification, but less direct memory exposure.

The ETF is still too young for a normal technical playbook. There is barely a 20-day moving average to watch, so the launch trend line is the tell.

As long as DRAM keeps riding that ramp, traders are still paying up for direct memory exposure. A break below it would be the first sign the AI memory boom is losing momentum in ETF form.

Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com.