NPS · KIC's US Stock Basket... 'Bitcoin in the spotlight' Microstrategy↑

[KOREA FINANCIAL TIMES, Jeong Suneun] The "big hand" pension fund National Pension Service (NPS) and the sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) added Microstrategy Inc. to their U.S. stock direct investment portfolio in the second quarter of this year.

The indirect investment in Bitcoin by both institutions is drawing attention.

According to the 13F report (Form 13F) filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the 23rd, NPS invested 245,000 new shares of Microstrategy Inc. with the largest number of bitcoin holdings among single companies in the second quarter of 2024.

KIC also purchased 21,000 new shares of Microstrategy Inc.

The two did not directly buy bitcoin, or bitcoin spot ETFs (exchange-traded funds), but approached investment by buying corporate stocks with large bitcoin holdings.

It has already purchased bitcoin-related stocks through an investment in Coinbase Global Inc.

KIC has purchased Coinbase Global Inc. shares, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, since the fourth quarter of 2021, and has bought 22,272 more shares in the second quarter.

The National Pension Service also purchased Coinbase shares in the third quarter of 2023. On the other hand, the National Pension Service sold 23,956 shares, part of Coinbase, in the second quarter of this year.

On the other hand, the investment direction was different for the so-called 'M7', which consists of big tech stocks such as Nvidia, Microsoft (MS), Apple, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Meta, and Tesla. In the case of the National Pension Service, the proportion of leading stocks was increased, while KIC showed a pattern of profit-taking.

Nvidia, an artificial intelligence (AI) beneficiary, was the top stock that the National Pension Fund increased its allocation to in the second quarter of 2024. Nvidia's weight in the portfolio increased by 1.49 percentage points, from 4.34% to 5.83%.

In addition, the National Pension Service made new investments in the "T Rowe Price US Equity Research ETF (TSPA)" in the second quarter of this year. With 9.51 million shares, it was the second-largest overweight in the portfolio. TSPA is an ETF that focuses on growth stocks and has a large M7 weighting.

On the other hand, KIC sold 1,224,046 shares of Microsoft stock in the second quarter of 2024, and KIC also sold 542,291 shares of Nvidia.

Both were notable for having AI infrastructure companies in their portfolios.

In Q2 2024, KIC made a new investment of 334,161 shares in GE Vernova, the world's leading wind power equipment sales company. GE Vernova was spun off from GE Energy in April 2024.

The National Pension Service also included 531,667 GE Bernova shares in the second quarter of this year.

As of the end of June 2024, the value of the NPS's direct U.S. equity investment assets was $87 billion, up 4.4% from the previous quarter. This is the fifth consecutive quarter of all-time high.

In addition, as of the end of June, the value of KIC's direct investment in U.S. stocks was $39.7 billion, up 0.8% from the previous quarter.

Jeong Suneun (bravebambi@fntimes.com)