In the performance of the first quarter of 2026, China's two leading semiconductor foundries, SMIC (00981) and Huahong Semiconductor (01347), have both delivered significantly increased profits. Although Huahong Semiconductor's actual profits were slightly lower than market expectations, the overall performance of both companies still showed strong resilience, with core driving factors coming from the strong demand for complementary chips driven by the explosion of artificial intelligence applications. (Source: HKEx announcement Huahong Semiconductor) Huahong Semiconductor In the first quarter of 2026, the company achieved sales revenue of approximately 661 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 22.2%, with net profit attributable to the parent company increasing by over 458%, mainly benefiting from strong demand for MCU, power devices, and specialty process products, an increase in average selling prices, and an increase in contribution from the 12-inch production line. However, revenue only slightly increased by 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, and the gross margin remained flat, resulting in overall performance slightly lower than market expectations. It is worth noting that the company's guidance for the second quarter is relatively optimistic, with expected revenue between 690 million and 700 million US dollars, and gross margin expected to increase to the range of 14% to 16%. China International Capital Corporation published a report on May 15, 2026, stating that the price increase plan will gradually take effect in subsequent quarters, driven by strong demand for AI and storage products, with an expected 10% to 15% increase in average selling prices for the year. The bank has therefore raised its target price from HK$116.5 to HK$152.4 and maintained a buy rating. (Source: HKEx announcement SMIC) SMIC In the first quarter of 2026, SMIC achieved sales revenue of 2.505 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 11.5%, with a gross margin of 20.1%. It still recorded positive growth in what is traditionally a slow season, with domestic customer demand providing important support. According to the company's announcement on HKEx, the guidance for the second quarter is strong, with an expected revenue growth of 14% to 16% quarter-on-quarter, and a gross margin between 20% and 22%. The highlight of SMIC this quarter is that the slow season is not slow, reflecting the gradual recovery of its competitiveness in mature processes and specialty technologies, and demonstrating that AI infrastructure and localization demand have become important growth drivers. At the same time, the company's monthly production capacity for 8-inch wafers reached 1,078,250 pieces, with a share increasing to 23.6%, up 0.8 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2025. Although the individual stock performance of Huahong and SMIC is impressive, there is still significant uncertainty and company-specific risks from investing in individual stocks. In comparison, by diversifying through a basket of Asian semiconductor leaders, investors can more comprehensively capture industry growth, while effectively diversifying single company and regional risks. In this context, the E Fund (Hong Kong) Solactive Asia Semiconductor Select ETF (03486) provides investors with a convenient tool to allocate to Asian semiconductors. In addition to including SMIC and Huahong Semiconductor as mentioned above, the ETF also covers industry-leading companies in the Asian market such as TSMC (TSM.US), Samsung, Hynix, Tokyo Electron (8035.JP), and ASMPT (00522), spanning multiple high-growth segments such as wafer foundry, packaging and testing, power devices, and storage, helping investors to share the long-term growth dividends of the Asian semiconductor industry in the AI wave in a balanced manner, making it one of the preferred choices for allocating to the Asian semiconductor sector. Furthermore, keep an eye on the rapid development of Agentic AI this year, which is expected to further propel the industry into a new upward cycle. Agentic AI Drives Token Consumption Explosion, Asian Semiconductor Rides the Wave According to the latest report from Goldman Sachs, "Decoding the Agentic Economy," Agentic AI is evolving from a single chat model to an autonomous, multistep, continuously operating intelligent agent system, expected to drive global Token consumption to grow 24 times from 2026 to 2030, with the enterprise-side Agent contributing the most (expected to increase by 55 times). This explosive demand is rapidly spreading to the fields of computing power, edge computing, power management, and storage chips, and Asia, as the core of global semiconductor manufacturing, is becoming the most direct beneficiary. Investment Highlights from Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs emphasizes in the report that the low-cost Token + high Token consumption flywheel effect brought by Agentic AI will significantly increase the capacity utilization and profitability of Asian semiconductor companies. With the inflection point of Token economics expected to occur in the first half of 2026, Asian semiconductors are poised to enjoy a dual dividend of increased demand and improved gross margins. An important point not to be overlooked in this report is that the effective reduction of Token costs will determine the speed of the adoption of Agentic AI. In the semiconductor field, the most dominant companies are still NVIDIA, AMD, and Broadcom, hence the report from Goldman Sachs recommends these three companies. However, the further improvement of chip training and inference efficiency ultimately depends on breakthroughs in advanced processes. From this perspective, not only logic chips, but also memory chips will significantly benefit, including Asian leading manufacturers such as TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix, all of which will become important beneficiaries. In addition, although domestically produced chips are not discussed in the Goldman Sachs report, they will also benefit from the industry logic mentioned above. In the domestic AI development process, the performance improvement of chips by companies like Huawei and Cambricon relies heavily on the production capacity expansion of SMIC and Huahong Semiconductor in mature and advanced processes, as well as the technical support from equipment suppliers like ASMPT. In this context, the future of the entire Asian semiconductor industry is still worth paying attention to. The E Fund Asia Semiconductor ETF (03486) provides investors with an ideal tool for diversified allocation to Asian semiconductor leaders, allowing investors to efficiently capture industry trends without having to select individual stocks one by one. Overall, the future of the Asian semiconductor industry remains promising, especially with the rapid development of Agentic AI. Investors are encouraged to consider ETFs and diversified investment options to make the most of the growth potential in this industry.Opportunities for career advancement.In 2026, driven by the rapid development of Agentic AI and the continuous expansion of AI infrastructure, the Asian semiconductor industry is entering a clear upward cycle. The Solactive Asian Semiconductor Select Index has outperformed several major indices in the industry since its inception, demonstrating its advantage in capturing industry growth opportunities. Whether it's the Hang Seng Index, the Hang Seng Tech Index, the S&P 500 Index, or the Nasdaq Composite Index, they have all clearly benefited from this wave of AI. As semiconductors, which are the core infrastructure of AI, become increasingly important. Through the CSOP Solactive Asian Semiconductor Select Index ETF (03486), investors can efficiently position themselves in leading semiconductor companies and effectively grasp this long-term trend, achieving a balance between risk diversification and capturing growth. This is a configuration choice worth paying attention to.