Asian technology is roaring as investors pile in with the Betashares Asia Technology Tigers ETF surpassing $1 billion in funds under management.
The growth comes as shareholders seek diversification beyond US mega-cap technology and a more cost-effective way to gain exposure to the AI megatrend.
The ETF (ASIA) provides exposure to leading tech companies across China, Taiwan, and South Korea and spans consumer internet platforms as well as critical technology infrastructure providers, returning 43.7 per cent in 2025 and attracted $118.3 million in new investor inflows.
Analysts say the surge reflects growing confidence in Asia’s role in the global artificial intelligence ecosystem, as companies such as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Alibaba supply the critical chips and AI infrastructure driving the next wave of innovation.
“ASIA passing $1 billion in funds under management is a significant milestone and reflects growing investor confidence in the long-term opportunity within Asian technology,” senior investment strategist Cameron Gleeson said. “After another strong year of performance in 2025, investors are increasingly recognising the region’s importance to global innovation and earnings growth.”
Reflecting on the start of 2025, he added, export-oriented emerging market economies looked particularly exposed to President Trump’s tariffs but have proved themselves to be some of the best-performing stock markets.
Betashares believes emerging market Asia offers a more cost-effective way to play the AI trade, beyond US mega-cap tech stocks.
“For example, Korea’s SK Hynix and Samsung are important suppliers for the US data centre build-out, and Alibaba has re-emerged as a Chinese AI champion capable of challenging the leading AI models,” Gleeson said.
“We believe Asian technology remains a compelling complement to US tech exposure. Asian tech companies are beneficiaries of supportive government policy and supply the memory chips and GPUs required to train and run AI models. From an investment standpoint they offer similar earnings growth to the Nasdaq 100 yet still have a long way to catch up in terms of stock price returns.”
Japan is also emerging as a particular standout, with annual flows into BlackRock’s Japan ETF almost three times those of the previous year. The asset manager believes the Japanese stock market still has further upside.
In 2025, Japanese stocks beat the S&P 500, returning 22.7 per cent in US dollar terms compared with 15.8 per cent for the US index, according to Goldman Sachs. Markets particularly gathered pace late in the year, with the Topix 100 Index breaching 3,000 points in August and the Nikkei 225 closing above 50,000.
Australian investor inflows last year reflected the trend, with the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (IJP) pulling in over $340 million for the year – nearly three times its 2024 inflows.
The iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (IKO) was also among the best-performing ETFs in 2025, with gains of 81 per cent, while Korean defence companies were a notable source of market strength.
While not a pure defence ETF, its holdings include companies involved in arms exports and defence technology, which benefited from broader market uptrends.
