Rhetoric from the CCP has reached a new pitch as President Xi Jinping calls on "all patriots from home and abroad, in and out of Taiwan" to increase opposition to independence for the disputed nation.

This comes only a few days after "peaceful" was dropped from the phrase "peaceful reunification" in an official Chinese budget report that outlines a more than 7% boost to military spending. "Peaceful" has always been used when speaking about reunification and many found its absence conspicuous.

Led by Asia's 2nd largest company, Taiwan Semiconductor , Taiwan is the world leader in the manufacturing of the chips critical to, amongst many other applications, AI.

The increasing geopolitical tension has made some investors wary, TSM dipped close to 1.5% after Xi's remarks. Most investors, however, remain bullish. 

TSMC has been on a tear recently, up 44.9% this year. 5% of that came this week after extremely positive numbers were released. The chip manufacturer boosted revenue by close to 10% in the first two months of the year.

Semi SOXX

TSMC is just one of many stocks in the semiconductor industry that have been on an upward spike this year. The semiconductor industry provides the powerful components that allow AI to function. Semis are the "picks" being sold to the gold minors, to borrow from a classic analogy. 

NVIDIA Corp ( NVDA ) is the darling of the moment, rocketing up over 500% since January of 2023. But many other semiconductor companies are hot as well, like Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ( AMD ) .

Investors looking to get into the space would do well to consider a semiconductor-focused ETF like iShares Semiconductor ETF ( SOXX ) . The fund invests in a diversified set of companies involved in the space like NVIDIA ( NVDA ) and AMD.

Max View

And for investors who want to take their view even further, Direxion offers the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares ( SOXL ) which seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, of 300% of the performance of the NYSE Semiconductor Index.

For the bears, who think Semis are overvalued and a correction is imminent, Direxion offers the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bear 3X Shares ( SOXS ) which seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, of 300% of the inverse of the performance of the NYSE Semiconductor Index.

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