3 global stocks loved by top-performing managers

Last week, I put together a wire by analysing the latest fund updates from a handful of ASX-focused, top-performing funds. It was hugely popular, so this week I am turning my attention to global equities. 

The method is the same. I used the Livewire fund database (top right-hand corner of your page - FIND FUNDS) to identify the best-performing global equity funds over the past six months (admittedly, a very short timeframe, but also when markets have been most volatile), then I downloaded the latest commentaries from a selection of those funds.

For the record, the reports came from Janus Henderson, Platinum, GMO, ClearBridge, Lazard, Pzena, and Orbis.  

An emerging markets story?

Whilst the past few years have definitely been a global equities story, within that story, there have been evolutions. Big tech and the Magnificent Seven carried the torch for a period, but things are changing - and fast. 

The best-performing global funds of the past six months haven’t won by owning the world. They’ve won by owning a surprisingly tight cluster of companies — mostly in Taiwan and Korea — and riding the capital-expenditure shockwave being unleashed by AI and electrification.

Emerging markets funds dominate the leaderboard, but this hasn’t been a broad-based EM melt-up. It’s been a concentrated bet on the supply chain behind the narrative: foundries, memory, and the materials that feed the grid.

The market narrative has focused heavily on US mega-cap AI beneficiaries. But the funds that have delivered the strongest six-month returns have leaned into the pick-and-shovel layer: memory, foundry capacity, packaging, and chip manufacturing scale.

In other words, the AI cycle has been expressed through Korea and Taiwan, not just Silicon Valley. 

Not a broad EM rally - a concentrated one

The strongest-performing EM portfolios have skewed toward information technology, materials, and industrials - particularly where those sectors intersect with AI-driven demand and capital expenditure.

There is selective exposure to China platforms. There is meaningful allocation to financials. But this is not an indiscriminate beta trade. It is targeted exposure to:

• AI-linked semiconductors
• Select financial cyclicals
• Valuation-driven opportunities in emerging markets

The move hasn’t been purely multiple expansion either. Several managers continue to highlight valuation gaps versus developed markets, suggesting there was fundamental support under the rally.

Commodities and electrification - the parallel engine

The other major outperformer in the global space has been natural resources.

Mining and energy-heavy portfolios have surged, driven by copper, lithium, gold and diversified miners. This intersects neatly with the electrification theme.

AI data centres consume vast amounts of electricity. Rising power demand requires grid expansion. Grid expansion requires copper. Renewable buildout requires lithium, storage, transmission and heavy capital expenditure.

The AI trade is not just a software story. It is an infrastructure and materials story. That’s why semiconductor manufacturers and diversified miners can both sit atop the performance tables at the same time.

The outlier: biotech’s rebound

One notable exception in the leaderboard has been global health sciences. Here, the driver is different: biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

After a prolonged drawdown, innovation-heavy healthcare names have staged a sharp rebound. Exposure is concentrated in biotech and drug development rather than large-cap defensive healthcare.

It’s a useful reminder that while emerging markets, hardware, and commodities have dominated, this has not been a single-factor market. Dispersion remains elevated and alpha has come from concentrated positioning.

What this tells us

The best-performing global funds are not broadly diversified expressions of “global growth”. They are concentrated bets on:

1. AI hardware supply chains in Taiwan and Korea
2. Commodities leveraged to electrification and energy demand
3. Select value and financial exposures in emerging markets
4. Idiosyncratic biotech recovery

The common thread is capital expenditure and infrastructure.

The AI narrative may be dominated by US software platforms, but the returns - at least over the past six months - have been driven by foundries, memory, copper, lithium and grids. And most of that sits outside the United States.

3 stocks with the most mentions

Across several of the top-performing portfolios, the same names keep appearing:

Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM)

TSMC’s investment appeal rests on its dominant position as the world’s leading contract semiconductor foundry, with advanced process technology that underpins most high-end AI chips. Its scale and continuous reinvestment in cutting-edge manufacturing create formidable barriers to entry - an oligopoly that benefits from accelerating AI and data-centre demand. Funds highlight strong secular growth as AI workloads deepen and require ever-more capacity, with TSMC’s facilities largely fully booked through at least 2026. 

This structural demand, combined with long-term customer relationships with major fabless designers, positions TSMC for sustained earnings expansion as the next generation of AI and high-performance computing chips proliferates.

Samsung Electronics

Samsung’s investment thesis is anchored in its transformation into a key beneficiary of the AI-driven memory supercycle. After struggling with cyclical headwinds, the company has posted record profits and expanded production of advanced memory chips - especially high-bandwidth memory used in AI infrastructure. The rebound in DRAM and NAND pricing, combined with tight supply and strong demand from hyperscale data centres, underpins expectations for ongoing revenue and margin growth. 

Samsung’s diversified business model - spanning memory, consumer electronics and components - also provides resilience. Investors see valuation support from recovering earnings, structural memory demand and expansion into next-generation HBM technologies as central to future performance.

SK Hynix

SK Hynix’s investment case centres on its leadership in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a critical input for AI accelerators and advanced computing. It has quickly captured a dominant share of the HBM market, outpacing peers and becoming a primary supplier for Nvidia and other data-centre customers. Industry tightness and elevated pricing for DRAM and NAND further support strong earnings momentum. Despite historical valuation discounts due to broader market factors, projected revenue and profit growth forecasts point to a fundamental shift from cyclical to more structural demand dynamics. 

As memory shortages persist and AI workloads expand, SK Hynix’s specialised technology and capacity position it for outsized growth.