Roundhill’s DRAM ETF hits $1 billion in assets in just 10 trading days.

A new exchange-traded fund has had one of the fastest starts in recent memory—by investing in memory.  

The Roundhill Memory ETF, known by its ticker symbol DRAM, launched on April 2 with little fanfare and no major seed investors. The fund has gathered more than $1 billion in assets in less than two weeks, rare for any ETF and an unprecedented feat for such a small money manager.

The theme ETF tracks computer-memory and -storage stocks, a small but red-hot niche that has benefited from huge demand related to the AI infrastructure build-out. More than three-quarters of the fund is exposed to just three stocks: Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, of South Korea, and Idaho-based Micron Technology.

The fund’s runaway success has surprised even its managers. 

“To be quite honest, we were not forecasting that this ETF would essentially be in rarefied air within 10 days,” said Dave Mazza, chief executive of boutique asset manager Roundhill Investments. 

Concentrated-theme ETFs have a rocky record. A handful, such as funds tracking the Magnificent Seven technology companies, have been hits, though they took years to reach $1 billion in assets. Most have languished, often suffering from managers’ tendency to launch funds right as a market theme has peaked.

The DRAM fund’s rapid ascent is “beyond shocking,” Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote on X. 

The fund has benefited from the speculative fervor around memory stocks and the fact that it solves a problem for some investors: Neither Samsung nor SK Hynix, two of the world’s biggest memory companies, trade in the U.S., making them harder for American investors to access.

Memory stocks have posted large gains recently, leaving some analysts concerned about market froth. Sandisk is the S&P 500’s best performer this year, up nearly 300%. In Korea, Samsung shares are up 83%.

Much of the demand is coming from individual investors, Mazza said, though a handful of larger tickets show that hedge funds are likely trading it too. The fund has gained traction with individual traders on social-media platforms like Reddit and X.

High overnight trading volume indicates that international investors are also buying. South Korea has an active base of individual stock traders, known locally as “ants.”

“South Korean retail investors are very active, and I think they’re particularly proud that there’s now a U.S.-listed ETF that provides exposure to companies that are so important to their local market,” Mazza said. 

Through Monday, the DRAM ETF has posted a net $1.03 billion inflow, according to FactSet. The fund charges a 0.65% annual management fee and will substantially boost Roundhill’s revenue if it can maintain assets at the current level. Founded in 2018, Roundhill has about a dozen employees. DRAM is already its third-largest ETF.