Best Semiconductor & AI ETFs (2026)

Top Picks Right Now

Ranked by ETFValuer's overall score. Recalculated every day from live market data — these positions change as the underlying numbers move.

At a Glance

Each superlative is measured within this group of 2 funds, not across the whole market.

All 2 Funds Ranked

Max DD is the deepest peak-to-trough fall over the measurement window. Sharpe ratio measures return per unit of volatility — higher is better. Every figure is recalculated daily.

What Makes a Good Fund Here

Semiconductor funds are the most concentrated way to own the AI build-out, and among the most volatile funds available. A handful of companies drive most of the return, and the industry has always been deeply cyclical.

The ETFValuer score blends trailing return, risk-adjusted return, expense ratio, maximum drawdown, fund size and volatility, each percentile-ranked against the full tracked universe, into a single 0-100 figure graded A+ to F. It is a systematic summary of past data, not a forecast — read it alongside the individual columns rather than instead of them.

Broader Alternatives

A dedicated fund here is a concentrated bet. These broader funds hold the same companies alongside others, giving similar exposure with less single-industry risk — worth checking before committing to the narrower option.

Three Ways to Own the AI Trade

"AI ETF" gets used for three very different kinds of fund, and the difference explains most of the gap in their results:

• Semiconductor pure plays. Concentrated baskets of chip designers, memory makers, foundries and equipment suppliers — roughly 25 to 30 holdings. This is the picks-and-shovels layer, where AI demand shows up directly in revenue. It is also where the volatility is.
• Broad technology funds. Hold the same chipmakers alongside software, hardware and internet companies. You get most of the same theme at a fraction of the fee and a materially smoother ride, because the non-semiconductor holdings dilute the cyclicality.
• Funds with "AI" or "robotics" in the name. Thematic funds built around a narrative rather than an industry classification. These have generally been the weakest performers of the three groups — they hold smaller, less profitable companies, charge far more, and were often launched after the theme was already widely known.

The counter-intuitive result is that the funds most explicitly marketed as AI funds have tended to deliver the least AI exposure that matters, while a plain technology sector fund captures much of the trade at a fraction of the cost.

Valuation, Risk and Position Sizing

Semiconductors are among the most cyclical industries in the market. The sector has repeatedly fallen 30-40% or more in downturns, and it has done so even during periods when the long-term demand story was intact. A few things worth holding in mind:

• Concentration is the real risk, not the number of holdings. A fund can hold 30 companies and still have close to half its assets in its top five. Because the largest chipmakers have become such a large share of these indexes, a semiconductor fund is closer to a concentrated position than the holding count suggests.
• You probably already own a lot of this. Technology is the largest sector in the S&P 500, and the biggest chipmakers are among the largest companies in the world. A dedicated semiconductor fund stacks more of an exposure your core index fund already provides.
• Valuation is a description, not a prediction. An expensive sector can stay expensive for years, and a cheap one can stay cheap. What high valuations reliably do is reduce the margin for error if growth disappoints.
• Size the position for the drawdown, not the return. The useful question is not how much you would make if the theme keeps working — it is how large a position you could hold through a 40% fall without selling at the bottom.

Head-to-Head Comparisons

Full metric-by-metric breakdowns for the closest calls in this group.

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