China's high-tech manufacturing sector is benefiting from a powerful combination of policy support and rapid advancements in AI technology. This dual push is enhancing the appeal of domestic "hard tech" assets, with increasing attention turning to indices that track these key industries.

In this favorable environment, Huatai-PineBridge STAR 50 ETF (588090), one of the first funds to track the STAR 50 Index, has registered six consecutive trading days of capital inflows. Over this period, it accumulated approximately 301 million yuan in new investments, lifting its total fund shares to 3.054 billion and its asset size to 4.961 billion yuan. The STAR 50 Index is a core benchmark for the STAR Market, comprising 50 representative companies with significant market capitalization, strong liquidity, and solid fundamentals. The semiconductor sector accounts for more than 79.96% of the index's weight, and all of its top ten holdings are focused on the semiconductor core sector. Following the index's regular adjustment on September 11, several leading semiconductor and electronics supply chain companies will be added, which is likely to further increase the weighting of semiconductor companies and strengthen the innovation-focused strategy, offering a more precise reflection of the growth of China's advanced technology industries.

From an industry perspective, the semiconductor market is expected to maintain its upward momentum, driven mainly by the major upgrades taking place in global large language models. On September 4, OpenAI launched its new AI model, <<>>, which is capable of directly managing computers and software, and handling complex duties such as coding, scientific computing, 3D modeling, and office document processing. Carrying out such high-level tasks requires enormous computing power, which creates a greater need for fundamental hardware components like storage and flash memory, potentially unlocking a new stage of demand in the global chip supply chain. Robust trade data from abroad already provides tangible evidence of the hardware needs generated by these AI models.

The global push for AI infrastructure has fueled a boom in the semiconductor sector, with South Korea's trade figures showing marked improvement due to strong overseas demand for AI hardware. Between January and August, its trade balance surged, keeping the country in a trade surplus for 19 straight months. Semiconductor exports are the main growth engine, reaching $192.43 billion in the first half of the year, a year-on-year jump of 162.5%, with August shipments climbing 209% compared to last year. Global memory giants like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have seen solid results and exports, which appears to confirm that the global memory chip industry has entered a positive cycle with growing confidence.

While the international semiconductor market is thriving, China's policymakers are increasing their support to reinforce the long-term foundation for local hard-tech and AI industries. On September 4, seven government departments released a joint implementation plan for the 2026-2030 period, promoting the integrated development of digital and green transformation. This plan specifically calls for enhancing research and development across the entire software and hardware chain, including chips, acceleration libraries, and AI frameworks, in order to build a solid technological base for the AI industry. In a related move, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology introduced a support program for small and medium-sized AI enterprises (from 2026 to 2028), designed to foster innovation, improve the startup ecosystem, and steadily drive technological breakthroughs across the domestic supply chain.

Huatai-PineBridge STAR 50 ETF (588090) and its feeder funds (A Class: 011610 / C Class: 011611) are managed by Huatai-PineBridge Fund Management, one of the earliest ETF managers in China with more than 19 years of experience in index investing. The firm offers a range of efficient, cost-effective tools, such as CSI 300 ETF (510300) and A500 ETF (563360). As of June 30, 2026, its ETFs have generated over 180.6 billion yuan in cumulative profits for investors in the last two years, making it one of only three fund companies in the A-share market to have achieved cumulative profits over 160 billion yuan in this period.