Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
There's an index called the MSCI Emerging Markets index — investors use it to track the performance of stock markets in developing economies. The idea is diversification. You put money into a basket of countries — Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan — and spread your risk around the world.
Except something quietly happened over the past few years that nobody announced. Three companies — TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix, all chipmakers — now make up nearly thirty percent of that entire index. Add in two Chinese tech giants and five companies account for thirty-five percent of what's supposed to be a globally diversified basket.
So here's the punchline: investors who thought they were buying emerging market diversification were actually buying a concentrated bet on the Asian semiconductor supply chain. And they didn't figure it out until the returns came in — which is exactly what we're looking at this week.
There's an index called the MSCI Emerging Markets index — investors use it to track the performance of stock markets in developing economies. The idea is diversification. You put money into a basket of countries — Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan — and spread your risk around the world.
Except something quietly happened over the past few years that nobody announced. Three companies — TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix, all chipmakers — now make up nearly thirty percent of that entire index. Add in two Chinese tech giants and five companies account for thirty-five percent of what's supposed to be a globally diversified basket.
So here's the punchline: investors who thought they were buying emerging market diversification were actually buying a concentrated bet on the Asian semiconductor supply chain. And they didn't figure it out until the returns came in — which is exactly what we're looking at this week.
