iShares' new AI fund holds $220 million, and Walmart is its largest stock

The iShares Future AI Beneficiaries ETF, —AIBF, a fund of U.S. companies that may gain from using artificial intelligence, reported $220 million in assets on Friday, October 2.

iShares says those companies may benefit from AI primarily by cutting costs, and additionally by selling more. BlackRock's brief says the fund is a way to add health care, logistics and retail beside a tech-heavy AI portfolio.

The top of the book matches the retail and health care part of that brief. As of Wednesday, September 30, Walmart was the largest holding, at about 4%, and Costco was next, with AbbVie, Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson close behind. The fund holds about 100 stocks, and no single name is a large piece of it.

Four of the five largest holdings in the Portfolio Building Block World Consumer Staples ETF, —PBCS, a new fund of companies that sell everyday goods, also sit in that top ten: Walmart, Costco, Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola. Those same four are four of the five largest in the iShares Global Consumer Staples ETF, BKXI, the established fund of global companies that sell everyday goods. —AIBF charges 0.40%, and BKXI charges 0.38%.

The iShares A.I. Innovation and Tech Active ETF, BBAI, is BlackRock's fund of AI and technology companies. It held about $15 billion, and its largest holdings were Micron, AMD and Nvidia. The net fee is 0.55%, after a waiver that BlackRock's fact sheet as of Tuesday, June 30, said runs through Wednesday, June 30, 2027.

The other new funds

The REX AI Chipmaking ETF, —CHIP, buys the machines that make AI chips, not the chips. Its largest holdings were Tokyo Electron, Applied Materials and Lam Research, and the fee is 0.65%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF, ASMH, the large fund of chipmakers and chip equipment, held about $78 billion and had 19.3% in Nvidia.

The xETFs AI Bottlenecks ETF, —NECK, is an active fund of scarce inputs in memory, optics, networking and power. The latest holdings had about 20 stocks, and 67% of the fund sat in the top 10, led by SK hynix, Lumentum and Coherent, at a 0.75% fee.

The KraneShares Actuator ETF, TORK, seeks companies that build actuators, the parts that turn a signal into a robot's movement. KraneShares says it intends to put about 10% of the fund in private companies. The gross fee is 1.00%, and the net fee of 0.65% lasts only while a voluntary waiver stays in place, which the firm says may be changed or ended at any time, without notice.

An index fund of the same parts was already trading. The Defiance Robotics Actuators ETF, —AT, a fund of actuator makers, charges 0.69%. Defiance's prospectus said that as of Monday, August 24, the index had significant exposure to Japan and China.

The Invesco Nasdaq International Innovators 100 ETF, —QQI, tracks an index of 100 innovative companies outside the United States, at a 0.29% fee. As of Tuesday, June 30, Invesco said the index had about 15% in Taiwan, 13% in China and 9% in South Korea, and that the MSCI EAFE index had none of those three. In the fund's latest holdings, Taiwan Semiconductor was 10.8%, SK hynix 6.5% and ASML 6.2%.

The Man Active Global Infrastructure ETF, MGIN, is an active fund of listed infrastructure companies. Man's prospectus counts real estate, health care and REITs as infrastructure, and the rule requires only that 30% of the fund sit outside the United States.

The iShares Global Infrastructure ETF, AIGF, a fund of listed infrastructure in utilities, energy and transport, charges 0.37% and held about $10.2 billion. MGIN charges 0.75%, which is 0.38 percentage points more, or $38 a year on $10,000, and it has no record yet.

Three Portfolio Building Block index funds each charge 0.14%, and each still held under $1 million.

The Portfolio Building Block US Banks ETF, —PBUB, is a short list of U.S. banks. It held about 20 names, with JPMorgan at 14.8% and Bank of America at 12.2%. The State Street SPDR S&P Bank ETF, BKBE, a broad U.S. bank fund, spreads about $1.5 billion across more than 100 banks and charges 0.35%.

The issuer's page for —PBCS still describes an index of developed and emerging markets. A filing dated Friday, September 18, limits the index to shares listed in developed markets. The five largest holdings were all U.S. companies, led by Walmart, and they were 41% of the fund.

The Portfolio Building Block World Ex US Industrials ETF, —PBWN, holds industrial companies listed outside the United States. It had 104 companies, led by Siemens. The iShares Global Industrials ETF, CEXI, the established global industrials fund, still had Caterpillar and GE Aerospace at the top of its latest holdings, and charges 0.38%.

On Monday, October 5, the largest new fund besides —AIBF was MGIN, at $9.9 million.