Japanese Chip Maker Boosts Apis Flagship Fund Up 8% May; YTD Return Now 48%

The Apis Flagship Fund returned 8.4% net in May 2026, and the month did more than pad an already strong year. The fund cleared its MSCI benchmark, which rose 5.2% in May. The gain also built on a 19.3% surge in April, pushing the quarter-to-date return to 29.4%. Year to date, Apis is up 48.4%.

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The distance from global equities is wide. The MSCI index, the fund’s stated benchmark, is up 12.1% for 2026, so Apis sits more than 3600 basis points ahead with half the year still to run. The benchmark was negative through the first quarter and only climbed into positive territory for the year during the spring rally. Apis compounded through both stretches.

Apis Capital Advisors runs the strategy as a global equity portfolio with long/short and long-only sleeves, built around small- and medium-capitalization companies. The fund finished 2025 up 55% and crossed the $1 billion asset mark late in the year, and its 2026 run had already reached 21.5% through February before the spring acceleration. The process starts bottom-up. The team picks individual stocks, then lets exposure build across globally oriented industries, mainly technology, healthcare, consumer, industrials, and materials.

Also see our profile of Daniel Barker and Eric Almeraz of Apis Capital in the Q2 2024 issue of Hidden Value Stocks  where they highlight two Asian smidcap stocks.

Where the gains came from

Technology hit many home runs for the hedge fund. The sector added 8.7% to the month’s return, led by memory-related positions, the chips used to store data in AI servers and consumer devices. The rest of the book contributed broadly rather than through one outsized bet. North America, Europe, and Asia each contributed somewhere between 3% and 4%, a balance unusual for a fund which is more diversified.