Meritz Securities' Hwang Su-wook: "In the High-Rate Era, Earnings-Based Investment in Semiconductors, Robotics and AI Infrastructure Remains Valid"

Unitree has been regarded as a leader among complete-robot companies, and once it is publicly listed and begins to be valued by the market, investors will be able to make reasonable value judgments about the robotics sector, he explained.

Hwang expects this standardization process to stabilize investor sentiment toward robotics and play an important role in laying the foundation for long-term growth.

He stressed that companies that dream of robotics as a future business while running other businesses over the medium to long term are less aligned with market flows than companies that supply parts when complete robots ship in China or the US and can show the numbers alongside them.

Ultimately, he added, which company first records concrete earnings will be the key indicator in robotics investing, and this becomes even more important in a high-rate environment.

Researcher Hwang analyzed that although KOSPI may appear weak in the short term, it is reasonable to center the overall investment focus on KOSPI. When rates rise, the KOSDAQ market feels the valuation burden more heavily, so even if a difficult market is expected, the market is likely to move around KOSPI, he explained.

Accordingly, he suggested that investors watch the flow of the KOSPI market and effectively maintain a portfolio centered on the semiconductor industry.

Researcher Hwang said that despite various noise in the current market, it will be difficult to reduce investment weight in the semiconductor industry. He judged that from the perspective of globally leading industries, AI infrastructure investment is unlikely to slow down. This is based on the outlook that as AI technology continues to advance and spread, related infrastructure investment will necessarily follow.

He stressed that semiconductor companies are likely to overcome this noise over the medium term and continue growing through their earnings, so semiconductors should hold a core position in the portfolio.

Senior Researcher Hwang stressed that after August, rather than expecting a sharp market rebound in a high-rate environment, investors should focus on selecting companies and industries that can record concrete numbers. He views the market as preparing for a rebound, with companies backed by solid earnings likely to shine more during the recovery phase.

From this perspective, he advised investors to re-examine their portfolios and work to uncover stocks that combine future growth potential with earnings stability.

Researcher Hwang stressed that the theme of Korea's AI data centers deserves focus. He pointed out the need to watch companies whose project outlines have become concrete and those expected to see order-driven earnings. He added that stocks tied to renewable energy and nuclear power, essential power sources for data center construction, should also be in focus.

He suggested that AI data centers are core infrastructure of the AI era, and investment opportunities can be found across the entire related supply chain.