AI Hedge Fund Surges 61% on Memory Chip Boom

Analog Century Management, a New York-based money manager focused on technology, media and telecom investments, has reported strong gains as investors continue to assess whether the massive spending behind artificial intelligence could generate durable returns. The firm's $1 billion Analog Century Long/Short hedge fund gained 9.4% in June, bringing year-to-date returns to 61%, marking a record run for the strategy that began trading in 2018, according to investor documents seen by Bloomberg News. Its larger $2.1 billion Analog Century Market Neutral strategy, which includes cash from eight separately managed accounts, including one from hedge fund firm Millennium Management, rose 3.9% in June and 11.7% in the first half.

Analog Century disclosed a position in Nvidia NASDAQ:NVDA, the AI chipmaker widely followed by investors, in its most recent regulatory filing, but Chief Investment Officer Val Zlatev indicated that the largest contributors came from companies tied to memory chips, storage devices, and computer networks. Sandisk NASDAQ:SNDK, a storage company cited as one of Analog Century's biggest winners, rose 858% in the first half, while Micron Technology NASDAQ:MU, a memory chipmaker, gained 304%, according to Zlatev's investor letter. The firm also held positions in Applied Materials NASDAQ:AMAT, Lumentum Holdings NASDAQ:LITE, and Astera Labs NASDAQ:ALAB, suggesting its AI exposure has been concentrated in the hardware and infrastructure segments that may benefit from hyperscaler and data center demand.

Zlatev has argued that memory prices have increased four to five times as data centers and larger context windows create heavier storage needs for more advanced AI models. He suggested that memory suppliers were not fully prepared for the surge, a view investors may see as supportive of continued demand for the less visible components behind the AI buildout. The performance also reflects how AI-related positioning has lifted parts of the hedge fund industry, with Whale Rock Capital Management's flagship hedge fund rising 72.5% in the first half and Coatue Management's hedge fund returning 24.5%, as capital continues to move toward companies supplying the computing power behind AI growth.