By Summer Zhen
HONG KONG, June 15 (Reuters) - Some Asia hedge funds delivered returns exceeding 100% in the first five months of the year, riding on record highs in stock markets and wagers on AI hardware and large language model leaders, according to sources familiar with the performance.
Market participants say regional funds were quicker to spot supply-side constraints as Asia covers nearly the entire semiconductor stack, allowing them to position early and capture opportunities across AI subsectors.
The performance highlights how market volatility induced by the Iran war has not derailed the AI-driven rally this year, as growing demand and tight supply lifted stocks and pushed Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to record highs.
Hong Kong's WT Asset Management saw its long-short China Focus fund book a net return of 103% in the year to date end-May, after rising more than 20% in May alone. Its long-only fund was up 67.5%, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Bets on AI hardware as well as China's domestic techs, such as chipmaker Hua Hong Semiconductor and AI agent Knowledge Atlas, contributed to the performance, the source said.
Public filings show WT was a cornerstone investor in Knowledge Atlas, known as Zhipu AI, whose shares have surged more than 1,000% year-to-date following its Hong Kong listing in January.
Assets under management at WT, run by veteran investor Wong Tongshu, have since grown rapidly to around $10 billion, another source said.
Other tech-focused funds have also ridden the wave.
E20 Capital, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund launched in 2025, posted a net gain of 136% in the first five months, with its position in memory, optics and CPUs boosting returns at flagship $2 billion Global Opportunity Investment Fund, a source said.
Meanwhile, long-time tech investor Trivest Advisors gained 88.9% in the first five months of the year, according to another source.
WT Asset Management declined to comment, while E20 Capital and Trivest Advisors did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
China's Shanghai Composite has climbed to its highest level in more than a decade.
South Korea's KOSPI has surged almost 100% so far this year, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Taiwan’s weighted index have risen roughly 31% and 53%, respectively.
Navin Raj Jaidev, a senior investment director at Cambridge Associates, said Asia offers increasing opportunities to deliver outsized returns, as many AI supply-chain firms in the region "remain under-covered and under-recognised by global investors."
He added that themes such as corporate governance reforms and block trades are gaining traction.
(Reporting by Summer Zhen; Editing by Kim Coghill)
