---
title: "An equal-weight technology ETF beat the cap-weighted fund by 9.3 percentage points"
url: "https://etf.net/news/an-equal-weight-technology-etf-beat-the-cap-weighted-fund-by-9-3-percentage-points-2026-09-28"
published_at: "2026-09-28T14:59:24.157Z"
updated_at: "2026-09-28T14:59:24.157Z"
byline: "ETF.net Research"
---

# An equal-weight technology ETF beat the cap-weighted fund by 9.3 percentage points

Broad technology ETFs diverged in the year through September 25, 2026: Invesco's equal-weight fund was up 46.1%, State Street's XLK was up 36.8%, and iShares' software ETF was up 0.3%.

By ETF.net Research. Published Sep 28, 2026.

Through Friday, September 25, Invesco's RSPT, which holds S&P 500 technology stocks in equal shares, was up **46.1%** this year. State Street's XLK, which holds S&P 500 technology stocks with more money in the larger companies, was up **36.8%**. A software fund was up 0.3%.

Those figures include dividends, from the last day of 2025 to Friday's close. The S&P 500 fund, SPY, was up 14.0%.

## The stocks pulled apart

Micron, AMD, Apple, Microsoft, Broadcom and Nvidia, on the same measure as the funds, split the year.

Chart: Micron and AMD gained more than **190%**; Nvidia gained 21%

Nvidia, the largest stock in the cap-weighted funds, had a quiet year next to either technology fund.

The profits had already split. In its July 31 update on second-quarter results, FactSet put earnings growth for S&P 500 information-technology companies at 69.4%. Without the semiconductor industry, FactSet said, that growth would have been 33.0%.

WSTS, the industry body that counts chip shipments, pointed the same way in its spring 2026 forecast. It put global chip sales at $1.51 trillion for 2026, and memory sales above $800 billion, on demand for AI computing and the memory those machines use.

## A longer list, the same giants

XLK tracks the Technology Select Sector Index, which State Street describes as the technology sector of the S&P 500. It holds 74 stocks, charges 0.08%, and runs about $127 billion. Bigger companies get a bigger share.

In holdings files from September 25 to September 28, the three largest stocks, Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft, are 15.3%, 13.8% and 10.4% of XLK, together 39.5%. The ten largest are 64.7%.

Broadcom is 4.7% of the fund. Those four are 44.2%, and each rose less than the fund.

A reader who owns SPY already holds these companies in size. Technology is 38.7% of SPY. Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft are already its three largest holdings, together 21.1%.

Vanguard's VGT tracks the MSCI US Investable Market Information Technology 25/50 Index: large, mid-size and small U.S. companies in the information-technology industry, under the official classification. It holds about 310 stocks and charges 0.09%.

Nvidia is 17.7% of VGT, a larger share than in XLK, because weight still follows company size. The three largest holdings together are 45.1% of the fund, and the ten largest are 63.1%.

Nearly every XLK stock sits inside VGT. What VGT adds is a long list of more than 200 smaller names, and they are not much of the money.

Fidelity's FTEC, a second fund on the same index series, charges 0.08% and returned 34.5%, against 34.4% for VGT.

## Equal shares of the same list

RSPT holds S&P 500 technology stocks and weighs them differently.

Invesco says the fund tracks the S&P 500 Equal Weight Information Technology Index. The index holds those stocks in equal shares and resets the shares every quarter. The fund charges 0.40% and holds about $6.1 billion. It has 74 stocks in common with XLK.

The largest position, Everpure, is 1.7%, and the ten largest are 15.4% of the fund. Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft take a different share of each fund.

Chart: Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft are **39.5%** of XLK

Only 47.5% of the weight lines up.

Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft and Broadcom are 44.2% of XLK and under 6% of RSPT. Each rose less than both funds. Cap-weighting is why XLK has 44.2% in those four, and equal weighting is why RSPT keeps each of them small.

The return gap this year is 9.3 percentage points, against a fee gap of 0.32 percentage points a year.

## Where the technology label stops

The other choice is which companies count. XLK's holdings file is 99.8% information technology. Alphabet, Meta and Amazon are not among its largest holdings, because the official classification does not call them technology companies.

Alphabet and Meta are communication companies, and Amazon is a consumer company. A fund with technology in the name can leave out the companies a person uses every day.

iShares' IGM draws a wider line. It tracks the S&P North American Expanded Technology Sector Index: U.S. and Canadian technology companies, plus selected communication companies.

In the September 25 file, communication services are 15.1% of the fund. Alphabet's two share classes are 4.7% and 3.7%, together 8.4%, and Meta is 5.1%. Apple, the largest holding, is 8.7%, so no stock has the grip Nvidia has on XLK.

The fund charges 0.37% and holds about $11.4 billion. It was up 31.7% this year, 5.1 percentage points behind XLK. Meta was up 14.2% and Alphabet was up 10.1%, so the platforms IGM adds were not the stocks carrying the chip rally.

iShares' IXN holds technology companies worldwide. It tracks a capped index, the S&P Global 1200 Information Technology index, charges 0.37%, and holds about $9.7 billion.

Nvidia is still first, at 13.2%. Taiwan Semiconductor, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and ASML together are 13.4%, and those companies sit outside XLK's S&P 500 list. IXN was up 42.0%.

iShares' software fund, IGV, holds North American software companies, plus a slice of interactive-media stocks. It charges 0.38% and holds about $14.1 billion. The fund was up 0.3%.

From the last day of 2025 to Friday's close, Palo Alto Networks, the largest holding at 9.4%, was up 103.4%, and CrowdStrike, another large holding, was up 115.1%. Oracle and Adobe, both in the ten largest, were down 29.0% and 32.7%.

Table: Fund, Largest holding, Weight of the ten largest, Fee, Return this year

Five of these six funds put more than half their money in ten stocks, including the funds that charge 0.37% and 0.38%. Only RSPT does not. Concentration follows the index rule, not the fee.

Adding XLK to a portfolio that already holds SPY adds more of Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft, the three stocks that lagged both technology funds. It does not add Alphabet, Meta or Amazon, the companies the sector fund leaves out.

Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/an-equal-weight-technology-etf-beat-the-cap-weighted-fund-by-9-3-percentage-points-2026-09-28. Please cite the page URL.