Trillions

For a while, the artificial intelligence trade was almost comically simple: just buy Nvidia. But as the buildout of massive data centers accelerates, and the AI models running on them get more complex, some long-overlooked parts of the semiconductor world are suddenly back in view. One of the most important: memory. Dominated by a small group of global giants—SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron among them—it’s a corner of the market that’s been hard for investors to access in a targeted way. Until now.
On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Bloomberg Intelligence semiconductor analyst Jake Silverman to unpack the explosive debut of the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM), which pulled in $1 billion in just 10 days. They break down why this fund could become one of the most successful thematic exchange-traded funds ever, what actually makes memory different from other chips, and why—despite its critical role in AI—it still trades a lot like a commodity.
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Just when it feels like ETFs have done it all, along comes some filings that push the frontier. A trio of issuers wants to launch funds tied to prediction markets -- letting investors wager, from their brokerage accounts, on outcomes like which political party will control the White House or Congress. But how would these ETFs actually work? What else might get packaged this way? And will regulators ever sign off?
On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber interview Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise and one of the filers, about why prediction market ETFs might make sense, how they’d work, and whether this is the start of a much bigger wave of event-based ETF investing.
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With each passing year, ETFs pull in trillions of dollars while mutual funds steadily bleed assets. And yet, mutual funds still hold more money overall. Now, a long-standing wall between the two may finally be coming down. Dimensional Fund Advisors has launched the first-ever ETF share class of an existing mutual fund, a structure made possible by the expiration of Vanguard’s once-protective patent.
On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Joel Schneider, Dimensional’s deputy head of portfolio management for North America, and Katie Greifeld of Bloomberg News. They discuss why Dimensional volunteered to be the guinea pig, why it chose its 45-year-old US Micro Cap Portfolio (ticker: DFMC), and whether this hybrid structure could reshape how trillions of dollars are invested.
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As the US and Israel's attack of Iran has reminded the world, oil remains as integral as ever to the global economy. But the ETFs for investing in crude come with some caveats—and are a big reason why Bloomberg Intelligence introduced its traffic-light system.
On this episode of Trillions, Eric Balchunas and Joel Weber speak with Bloomberg Intelligence's James Seyffart, an ETF analyst, and Vincent Piazza, a senior energy analyst. They discuss Piazza's "delay, disruption and destruction" outlook; how the United States Oil Fund (USO) came back from the dead; and what to know about other noteworthy energy ETFs such as XLE, CRAK and even BWET.
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The Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (FRDM) is having a moment. Launched seven years ago as a way to filter out autocratic emerging market countries and invest more in ones that have more freedom, it took a while to get going but it hasn't recently caught fire with a five year return of over 100%, which is 5x better than the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and even more than the Nasdaq 100.
On this episode of Trillions Joel and Eric speak with Perth Tolle, founder at Life + Liberty Indexes and the creator of FRDM, about the ETF's methodology, her experience growing up in China, how her life has changed with all the recent success and comparing and contrasting the US' freedom score with other developed countries.
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