Investing > Learn > DRAM ETF Review 2026: Holdings, Fees, and Whether It’s Worth Buying
Investing · ETF Review
A plain-language look at what the Roundhill Memory ETF owns, what it costs, and how it stacks up against broader chip funds and Micron stock.
The DRAM ETF is the fastest-growing new fund most people had never heard of six months ago. Roundhill launched it on April 2, 2026, and it now holds roughly $27 billion. That is a remarkable amount of money for a fund that owns about a dozen companies.
This review looks at what is really inside it, what it costs, and how it compares with three other ways to own memory chips: the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX), and Micron stock on its own. None of these is the one correct answer. The right pick depends on how concentrated you want to be and how rough a ride you can stomach.
Quick vocabulary first. DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) is the short-term working memory inside computers and servers. Demand for it, and for its faster cousin high-bandwidth memory (HBM), has surged because AI data centers need enormous amounts of both.
Our Wisers Say
Treat this fund as a satellite, not a core holding. Our rule of thumb: when three companies drive about three-quarters of a fund’s result, it shouldn’t be more than a small slice of a long-term portfolio. Think 5% or less.
And read the holdings list before you buy. Nearly half of the exposure comes through swap contracts rather than shares, which matters for risk and matters even more if you invest by halal principles.
Good news: you don’t have to choose
These options overlap more than they compete. SMH and SOXX already hold Micron, at roughly 5% and 8% of each fund in recent holdings data. So a broad chip fund gives you some memory exposure by default.
What they don’t hold is Samsung or SK hynix, because neither trades as a regular U.S.-listed stock. A common setup is a broad fund as the base, with a small memory position on top for the Korean giants. Just know that you’re doubling up on Micron when you do it.
DRAM ETF vs. SMH, SOXX, and Micron at a glance
| DRAM | SMH | SOXX | Micron (MU) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you own | 11 memory and storage companies worldwide | About 26 large chip companies | 30 U.S.-listed chip companies | One U.S. memory maker |
| Annual fee | 0.65% | 0.35% | About 0.34% | No fund fee |
| Cost on $10,000 a year | $65 | $35 | About $34 | $0 |
| Management | Active, no index | Passive index | Passive index | Not applicable |
| Largest position | Micron, about 26% | Nvidia, roughly a fifth | Capped; nothing much above 9% | Micron, 100% |
| Samsung and SK hynix | Yes, about 47% combined | No | No | No |
| How it gets exposure | Shares plus swaps (about 43%) | Owns the shares | Owns the shares | You own the share |
| Track record | Since April 2026 | Since 2011 | Since 2001 | Decades |
| Shariah-certified | No | No | No | Screen it yourself |
Figures as of September 30 to October 1, 2026. DRAM weights combine direct shares and swaps for each company. Sources: StockAnalysis holdings data, fund issuer pages, ETF comparison data.
Source: StockAnalysis holdings list, as of September 30, 2026. Weights shift daily.
Breaking it down, one criterion at a time
Holdings: what’s inside each option
On September 30, 2026, the DRAM ETF listed 24 line items, but that number flatters it. Strip out the Treasury bills, currency balances, and duplicate lines, and you’re left with 11 companies. Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix together make up about 74% of the exposure.
The rest is spread across CXMT, Seagate, Sandisk, Western Digital, Kioxia, Nanya, Winbond, and GigaDevice. That mix covers memory chips and data storage in five markets: the U.S., South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China.
SMH holds about 26 companies and leans hard on Nvidia. SOXX holds 30 and caps its largest positions, so no single name dominates. Micron stock is exactly what it sounds like: one company and one set of earnings reports.
Fees: what the DRAM ETF costs you
The fund charges an expense ratio of 0.65%, the yearly fee taken out of a fund’s assets. On $10,000, that is $65 a year. SMH charges 0.35% and SOXX is a hair lower, so the broad funds cost roughly half as much.
Is the premium fair? You’re paying for something the cheaper funds don’t offer: Samsung and SK hynix, plus active management of a tricky cross-border portfolio. Owning Micron directly carries no fund fee at all, though you give up every other name.
Structure: shares vs. swaps
This is the part most reviews skip. About 57% of the fund’s assets are ordinary shares. The other 43% or so of its exposure comes from total return swaps. These are contracts where a bank pays the fund the return of a stock, in exchange for a financing fee, without the fund owning that stock.
Most of the Micron position is held this way, along with part of the Samsung and SK hynix stakes and all of the CXMT exposure. Swaps don’t need the full cash up front. So the fund parks the leftover money in short-term U.S. Treasury bills and a government money market fund, which together were about 38% of net assets at the end of September.
Swaps add one risk that plain shares don’t have. You depend on the bank on the other side honoring the contract. Regulated funds manage this with collateral, and it rarely causes trouble, but it is a real difference from SMH, SOXX, or a share of Micron.
Concentration and volatility
The DRAM ETF has already shown how sharp its swings can be. Its price has ranged from $26.14 to $81.34 since launch, and it closed at $62.03 on October 1, 2026. That is about 24% below the peak, even after a strong September.
By late July the fund had fallen more than 43% from its high, according to Invezz. Broad chip funds fell too, but they have Nvidia, Broadcom, and equipment makers to soften a memory-specific slump. A single stock has no cushion at all.
Track record
Roundhill’s fund has six months of history, all of it inside one of the strongest memory upcycles on record. Nobody has seen how it behaves in a real memory downturn.
SMH dates to 2011 and SOXX to 2001, so both have lived through several chip busts and recoveries. Micron has traded publicly for decades, which at least shows you how deep its slumps can go.
Why memory chips boom and bust
Memory chips are closer to a commodity than most technology. One company’s chip does much the same job as another’s, so prices are set by supply and demand rather than by brand. When demand runs ahead of supply, prices and profits soar.
Chipmakers respond by building more factories. Supply catches up, and prices fall, sometimes hard. That cycle has repeated for decades.
Right now, AI is keeping demand ahead of supply, and the three largest makers have reportedly sold out their 2026 HBM capacity. The question for anyone buying a DRAM ETF today is not whether memory matters. It’s how much of the good news is already in the price, and what happens when new supply arrives.
The number that explains the DRAM ETF
Here is the statistic worth remembering: $26.1 billion. That was the fund’s net assets on June 30, 2026, under three months after launch, according to Roundhill’s semi-annual report filed with the SEC. The same filing lists just 19 holdings and classes 42.6% of the portfolio as cash and other.
Two things follow. First, this is a crowded trade. Tens of billions arrived in weeks, and money that rushes in can rush out.
Second, that cash figure isn’t idle money. It’s the collateral sitting behind the swaps described above.
A halal-aware look at the DRAM ETF
Memory chips themselves are a permissible business, which is why halal-conscious investors often ask about this fund. The structure is the problem. It is not Shariah-certified, and roughly 38% of its assets sit in Treasury bills and a money market fund that earn interest, or riba.
The swaps raise a second issue. A total return swap involves paying a financing rate to a bank, and most Shariah screening standards don’t accept conventional derivatives like these. SMH and SOXX avoid the swap problem, but neither is screened, so each holds whatever its index holds.
A cleaner route is to screen the individual chip makers with a tool such as Zoya or Musaffa and buy only the ones that pass. If you want a certified fund instead, the SP Funds S&P 500 Sharia ETF (SPUS) charges 0.45% and is heavy in technology, though it is not a memory fund. When in doubt, ask a scholar you trust, because screening results change as company finances change.
Pros and cons of each option
Where the DRAM ETF wins
- Pure memory exposure. It is the only one of the four built entirely around memory and storage.
- Access to Korea. Samsung and SK hynix are hard for many investors to buy directly. Here they are nearly half the fund.
- One ticker. You get 11 companies across five markets without opening a foreign brokerage account.
Where it falls short:
- Highest fee of the group. At 0.65%, it costs nearly double the broad funds.
- Swaps and interest-bearing collateral. These add counterparty risk and rule it out for many halal investors.
- Almost no history. Six months in a boom tells you little about a bust.
Where SMH wins
- Broadest AI exposure. Nvidia, TSMC, Broadcom, and the equipment makers sit in one fund.
- Lower cost. The fee is 0.35% a year.
- Long record. It has traded through more than one chip downturn.
Where it falls short:
- Heavy on Nvidia. One stock makes up about a fifth of the fund.
- Light on memory. Micron is around 5%, with no Samsung or SK hynix.
Where SOXX wins
- More balanced. Position caps keep any one company from taking over.
- Cheapest fund here. It edges out SMH by a fraction.
- More Micron than SMH. Around 8% of the fund is in the U.S. memory leader.
Where it falls short:
- U.S.-listed only. That leaves out the two Korean memory giants.
- Still one sector. Balanced inside chips is not the same as diversified.
Where Micron stock wins
- No fund fee. You pay only your broker’s trading costs.
- Simple and transparent. There are no swaps, no collateral, and no manager decisions.
- Easiest to screen. One company is far simpler to check against halal criteria than a fund.
Where it falls short:
- Single-company risk. One bad quarter or one factory problem hits your whole position.
- You miss two of the big three. Samsung and SK hynix lead in parts of the HBM market.
Which one is right for you
- You want a targeted bet on AI memory and accept big swings. The DRAM ETF fits, in a small position.
- You want chips broadly. Pick SMH for more Nvidia, or SOXX for a more even spread.
- You already own SMH or SOXX. A small DRAM slice adds Korea, but check your total Micron weight.
- You invest by halal principles. Skip the swap-based fund and screen individual stocks, or use a certified fund.
- You want the least complexity. Micron alone is simple, as long as you can live with one company’s ups and downs.
Five funds and providers to know
- Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM). The fund reviewed here. Roundhill publishes holdings daily.
- Roundhill T-REX 2X Long DRAM Daily Target ETF (RAM). Launched in June 2026, it targets twice DRAM’s daily move for a 1.25% net fee. It is a short-term trading tool, not a buy-and-hold fund.
- VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH). The largest broad chip fund.
- iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX). The capped-weight alternative from BlackRock.
- SP Funds S&P 500 Sharia Industry Exclusions ETF (SPUS). A Shariah-screened fund for readers who want certified exposure.
Key takeaways
- The DRAM ETF is a concentrated memory fund. Three companies drive about 74% of its results.
- Its 0.65% fee is roughly double SMH and SOXX. The premium buys access to Samsung and SK hynix.
- About 43% of its exposure comes through swaps backed by Treasury bills and a money market fund.
- It has six months of history and has already dropped more than 40% once.
- For most investors, it works best as a small satellite next to a broader fund.
The bottom line on the DRAM ETF
Is it worth buying? If you understand that you’re making a concentrated bet on three memory makers during a boom, and you size it to match, it does a job nothing else does. If you want a fund to buy and forget, a broad chip fund or a diversified index is the calmer choice.
This article is educational and isn’t personal financial advice. Holdings and prices shift daily, so check the fund’s own page before you buy.
For another view, see the U.S. News profile of the Roundhill Memory ETF and TipRanks’ comparison of DRAM vs. SOXX vs. SMH.
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