Nomura lists global memory ETF tracking Solactive index in Tokyo

Nomura Asset Management listed the NEXT FUNDS Solactive Global Memory Index ETF on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on 30 September under ticker 639A, tracking the Solactive Global Memory Index. The launch material calls it Japan's first global memory semiconductor ETF, though it does not test that description against any other Japanese product, and defines its scope as exposure running from semiconductor devices and components through to enterprise and data-centre storage systems, a wider set than chipmakers alone.

AI, cloud services and data-centre workloads are driving consumption of high-bandwidth memory, DRAM, NAND flash and solid-state drives, pulling memory closer to the centre of computing performance, and Timo Pfeiffer, Solactive's chief markets officer, argues that memory is emerging as a critical component of performance as AI models become more data-intensive. He describes the index as built to identify companies with meaningful exposure to memory-related businesses.

Eligible companies come from developed markets, South Korea and Taiwan, with minimum market-capitalisation and liquidity requirements screening the field and Solactive's ARTIS natural-language algorithm identifying relevant business activity across semiconductor memory devices, memory and storage components and modules, and enterprise and data-centre storage systems. Up to 20 securities are selected, weighted by free-float market capitalisation with any single constituent capped at 25 per cent, and the index is rebalanced twice a year.

A 25 per cent cap inside a 20-name maximum suggests the concentration question was anticipated, though whether it binds depends on constituent weights the launch material does not give. Because enterprise and data-centre storage systems sit in the eligibility list, the screen can accept companies whose main business is storage rather than memory manufacturing; ARTIS reads business descriptions, not fabs.

Naming South Korea and Taiwan alongside the developed-market set is the decision that matters more, and it argues for reading Solactive benchmarks closely on country weights: in September, the benchmark behind a Hong Kong-listed cash-flow ETF handed Hong Kong most of the index weight even where name counts looked even.

The expense ratio does not appear in the launch material at all, which puts Nomura's fund alongside a run of listings where the fee page arrives after the ticker — Deutsche's short-duration high-yield ETF on HYLB's index among them, its expense ratio likewise undisclosed. Nomura's investors get their next data point at the index's semi-annual rebalance, when ARTIS re-runs the screen and the roster of up to 20 securities is set again.