An ETF that didn’t exist six weeks ago now accounts for a staggering share of all money flowing into US stock funds. Naturally, the next step is a leveraged version.
Themes ETFs has filed for a leveraged take on the Roundhill Memory ETF, ticker DRAM, which has surged nearly 98% since launching on April 2 and amassed $6.7 billion in assets under management as of May 11. For context, most ETFs spend years trying to cross the $1 billion mark.
The numbers behind the DRAM phenomenon
For the week ending May 8, DRAM captured 17% of all US stock ETF inflows. Not 17% of semiconductor ETF inflows. Not 17% of thematic ETF inflows. Seventeen percent of the entire category.
DRAM is an actively managed fund with a 0.65% expense ratio, focused exclusively on global memory chip manufacturers. Its top holdings include SK Hynix at a 27.41% allocation, followed by Micron Technology, Samsung, and SanDisk. The fund has 54% of its total assets concentrated in just its top two positions.
Why memory chips became the hottest trade in markets
The thesis behind DRAM is straightforward. Training and running large AI models requires enormous amounts of high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. Every new data center that Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, or Amazon builds needs massive quantities of advanced memory chips to function. The companies that manufacture those chips, primarily SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung, have found themselves at the center of an infrastructure buildout that shows no signs of slowing.
DRAM was the first ETF to offer pure-play exposure to this theme. Before its launch, investors who wanted concentrated memory chip exposure had to either pick individual stocks or buy broader semiconductor ETFs that diluted the memory thesis with exposure to logic chips, equipment makers, and foundries.
What a leveraged DRAM means for investors
The Themes ETFs filing for a leveraged version of DRAM is the logical next chapter. Leveraged ETFs use derivatives and debt to multiply the daily returns of their underlying index or reference fund. A 2x leveraged DRAM product would aim to deliver twice the daily return, both up and down.
Leveraged products come with well-documented risks that casual investors often underestimate. Daily rebalancing creates a compounding effect that can cause leveraged ETFs to diverge significantly from their expected multiple over longer holding periods, especially in volatile markets. A stock that drops 10% and then rises 10% doesn’t get back to even. A 2x leveraged fund tracking that same move ends up meaningfully worse.
When 54% of a fund’s assets sit in two stocks, and that fund is absorbing 17% of all US stock ETF inflows in a given week, any negative surprise in memory earnings or AI spending guidance could trigger outsized selling pressure. Adding leverage on top of that structure amplifies that fragility.
