HKEX launches AI and semiconductor indices — and licenses the AI benchmark for a mainland ETF

• Who: Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), the exchange group behind the Hong Kong market (stock code 388).
• What: the launch of two new indices — the HKEX Artificial Intelligence Index and the HKEX Semiconductor Index.
• When: October 26, 2026, in an announcement carried by PR Newswire.
• AI index: 40 Hong Kong-listed companies with high exposure to the AI value chain, across a five-layer stack from chip design to software and physical applications.
• Semiconductor index: the 30 largest semiconductor-related companies listed in Hong Kong, spanning manufacturing, equipment, electronic components, computing hardware and storage.
• ETF deal: a licensing agreement with China Southern Asset Management for ETFs based on the AI index in mainland China; details of the product launch will be shared in due course.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) launched two new indices on October 26, 2026 — the HKEX Artificial Intelligence Index and the HKEX Semiconductor Index — and signed a licensing agreement with China Southern Asset Management for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on the AI index in mainland China. The announcement, carried the same day by FX News Group and ChinaTechNews, frames both indices as new benchmarks for two of the market’s most-watched technology themes.

Two benchmarks, two slices of the tech stack

The HKEX Artificial Intelligence Index measures the performance of 40 Hong Kong-listed companies with high exposure to the AI value chain. HKEX says it offers broad exposure across a five-layer AI stack: chip design, data centres, AI infrastructure, AI models, and software and physical applications. Constituents are selected and weighted using what HKEX calls a fundamental-tilted approach, designed to identify companies with meaningful investment in AI research and development and capital expenditure — a tilt toward firms actually spending on AI, rather than firms that merely mention it.

The HKEX Semiconductor Index takes the other slice: the 30 largest semiconductor-related companies listed in Hong Kong. It captures exposure across manufacturing, equipment, electronic components, computing hardware and storage — in other words, the full Hong Kong-listed semiconductor value chain, from the factory floor to the finished device.

The ETF is the point

An index on its own is a yardstick, not something you can buy. The investable part of this announcement is the licensing deal: China Southern Asset Management will develop ETFs tracking the HKEX Artificial Intelligence Index for the mainland China market. HKEX said details of the product launch will be shared in due course — so there is no launch date, fee, or fund name yet, only the agreement itself.

Yang Xiaosong, general manager of Southern Asset Management, said the deal turns “the opportunities across Hong Kong’s AI value chain into an index-based tool that mainland investors can access conveniently,” and described it as a bridge between the mainland and Hong Kong capital markets. HKEX group chief information officer Richard Leung said AI and semiconductors “are transforming industries and becoming increasingly important drivers of growth and innovation globally,” and that the exchange is committed to expanding its index suite so investors have more ways to capture the region’s technology growth.

What the announcement does not say

Three things are notably absent. First, no constituent names: the announcement describes how companies are chosen but does not list the 40 AI or 30 semiconductor constituents — HKEX points readers to its website for the index methodologies. Second, no timetable for the mainland ETF beyond “in due course.” Third, no equivalent licensing deal for the semiconductor index, which for now stands alone as a benchmark.

That sequencing makes sense for HKEX’s stated strategy: expand the proprietary index suite first, then let product partners build on it. HKEX, a publicly traded group (stock code 388) whose businesses span equities, derivatives, commodities and fixed income — including the London Metal Exchange — has pitched itself as a superconnector between East and West. An AI index that mainland investors can buy through a local ETF is that pitch in product form: Hong Kong-listed exposure, packaged for the mainland market.