Making semiconductors one of the "most crowded trades", global institutions are stepping out of the "herd mentality" to seek out niche directions.

Bank of America's latest survey shows that "going long on semiconductors" has become one of the most crowded trades in the global market. At the same time, well-known Wall Street investors Michael Burry and Cathie Wood, founder of Ark Invest, have successively taken bearish views on leading semiconductor stocks such as Nvidia, further intensifying doubts about the sustainability of the AI boom in the market. In the A-share market, the semiconductor sector also faces the pressure of high concentration of public fund holdings. Industry insiders believe that whether AI capital expenditures can continue, and whether downstream demand can form an ROI loop, will be key in determining the turning point in the market. In this context, institutions generally believe that instead of blindly going long or short, it is better to explore alpha opportunities in niche areas within the crowded space, such as storage chips, semiconductor equipment, and the undervalued PCB sector.