---
title: "Two AI funds share 8% of their weight and sit 28 points apart"
url: "https://etf.net/news/two-ai-funds-share-8-of-their-weight-and-sit-28-points-apart-2026-09-16"
published_at: "2026-09-16T14:45:25.751Z"
updated_at: "2026-09-16T14:45:25.751Z"
byline: "ETF.net Research"
---

# Two AI funds share 8% of their weight and sit 28 points apart

Artificial Intelligence ETFs in September 2026: Global X AIQ is up 25% year to date; its robotics sibling BOTZ is down 3.4%, 28 points apart.

By ETF.net Research. Published Sep 16, 2026.

Global X sells two funds with artificial intelligence on the door. They share six stocks, and those names, counted at the smaller of the two weights, are **8.1%** of the book. Through Wednesday, the Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF AIQ has returned **25%** this year. The Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF BOTZ is down **3.4%**. That is not a tracking glitch. It is two different economies wearing the same word.

AIQ holds 88 companies in a global AI-and-big-data index. Palantir is the largest position, at 3.9%. Then come Microsoft, a SpaceX line, Oracle, Netflix, Tesla, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and Apple. NVIDIA sits 11th, at 2.8%. An unconstrained AI index is how Netflix ends up in the same top ten as Palantir.

BOTZ's largest equities are Fanuc at 8.2%, Intuitive Surgical at 8.1%, Keyence at 7.9%, and ABB at 7.7%. NVIDIA is in there too, at 7.5%, but it is sitting next to Japanese factory automation and a surgical-robot maker, not next to Microsoft. The fund has 81 holdings and a 0.68% fee, the same fee as its sibling. The common word in the name is doing more work than the common stocks.

Chart: **Technology** dominates AIQ; **industrials** dominate BOTZ

## The book that paid is the chip book

Gartner in May put worldwide AI spending at **$2.59 trillion** in 2026, up 47% from 2025, with AI infrastructure the largest slice at $1.43 trillion. NVIDIA, reporting on August 26 for the quarter ended July 26, printed the operating proof: revenue of **$96.2 billion**, up 106% from a year earlier, including **$89.0 billion** of data-center sales, up 117%. The next report is due November 18.

The stocks that converted that spend into 2026 fund returns were not the ones on the keynote slides. Micron Technology has returned **226%** this year. Advanced Micro Devices has returned **145%**. NVIDIA itself is up **16%**. Microsoft is up 2.7%. Palantir, AIQ's largest holding, is down **4.5%**. Oracle, 3.3% of the same fund, is down **24%**, even after [cloud-infrastructure sales more than doubled](https://etf.net/news/oracle-cloud-infrastructure-sales-more-than-double-as-the-spending-bill-stays-large-2026-09-10).

That rotation is why two “AI” indexes can look like different asset classes. The iShares Future AI & Tech ETF ARTY tracks a global AI value-chain index of 49 companies. Its largest weights are NVIDIA, Taiwan Semiconductor, AMD, and Micron, then Global Unichip, Super Micro, Broadcom, and CoreWeave. Year to date it has returned **52%**, 36 percentage points ahead of the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ and 27 points ahead of AIQ. The fee is 0.47%, cheaper than most of the dedicated set, on $3.89 billion of assets.

The Invesco AI and Next Gen Software ETF IGPT makes the same point in a louder voice. The name says software. The book does not. Meta is 9.8% and Alphabet 8.0%. The top ten are **61%** of assets. The fund has returned **59%** this year.

Chart: **IGPT** sizes Micron and AMD as core holdings; **AIQ** does not

Roundhill's actively managed Generative AI & Technology ETF CHAT, which does mean generative AI, holds NVIDIA at 7.0%, Alphabet at 5.9%, and SK Hynix at 4.3%, and has returned **47%**.

A semiconductor fund is not an AI fund, but it has been the cleaner way to own the layer that paid. The iShares Semiconductor ETF SOXX is up **69%** this year. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF SMH is up **53%**. SMH gives NVIDIA **22%**, on $66.2 billion of assets. SOXX holds NVIDIA at 9.3%, AMD at 8.9%, and Micron at 8.8% on $41.4 billion.

We mapped a more concentrated version of this split in August, when [the AI label hid an 82% gain and a flat year](https://etf.net/articles/thematic-deep-dive-ea4ec3a40e71) inside a single fund. The VistaShares Artificial Intelligence Supercycle ETF AIS is still the extreme case, up **81%** this year with SK Hynix and Micron as its two largest holdings. It is the exception that explains the category, not a second telling of it.

## The other half of the year is the giveback

The first-half trade has been giving back. Over three months, SOXX is down **14%**, BlackRock's active AI fund BAI 13%, AIS 12%, SMH 11%, and CHAT 9.3%. ARTY is down only 2.4%. AIQ is down 1.7%. The broad book looks steadier because it never ran.

SOXX sits **22%** below its 52-week high; CHAT is 18% below; AIQ is 9.5% below. On July 29, CNBC reported that chip stocks had shed more than **$1 trillion**, with NVIDIA, SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron leading the losses. That episode did not cancel NVIDIA's August report. It showed that a crowding in AI infrastructure can reprice faster than the revenue can.

Over three years the pattern is the same shape as 2026, just slower. AIQ has returned **122%**. ARTY has returned 134%. CHAT has returned 213%. QQQ has returned 92%. BOTZ has returned **36%**. Robotics did not merely miss this year's memory spike. It has lagged through the generative-AI period.

## You may already own this

Before paying 0.47% to 0.75% for a dedicated wrapper, it is worth asking what a technology holder already has. The State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF XLK is $119 billion. NVIDIA, Apple 13.3%, Microsoft 10.2%, then Broadcom, AMD, Micron, Intel, Cisco, Palantir, and Lam Research.

Chart: **NVIDIA** is 22.5% of SMH and 2.8% of AIQ

AIQ shares 26 stocks and **38.5%** of its weight with XLK. Against QQQ, the overlap is 29 names and **43.5%** of weight: Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Tesla, Apple, NVIDIA, Micron, AMD, Broadcom.

AIQ and ARTY share a label more than a portfolio. Sixteen common stocks, **30.3%** of weight. Palantir, Microsoft, and Oracle sit at similar sizes in both. NVIDIA, Micron, AMD, and Broadcom are much larger in ARTY.

BAI, launched in October 2024, now holds **$13.6 billion**, larger than AIQ's $10.1 billion, and trades about $165 million a day. Micron is the top position at 6.3%, then NVIDIA, AMD, TSMC, and Broadcom. It shares eight stocks and **35%** of its weight with SMH. The active share is a chip-heavy AI book with a 0.65% fee, and it has returned **30%** this year: more than AIQ, less than ARTY, and closer to the semiconductor complex than the marketing line “innovation and tech” might suggest.

## How the dedicated menu is built

Thirty U.S. funds sit in etf.net's Artificial Intelligence category, the thematic group for products that name AI as their mandate. The ones large enough to set the price of the theme sort by mechanism, not by the word on the prospectus.

Table: Exposure, Fund, Assets, Fee, Largest holding, YTD

The table is a construction screen. ARTY and IGPT got paid for owning AMD and Micron at meaningful weight. AIQ got paid less because it owned Palantir, Microsoft, Oracle, and Netflix instead. BOTZ owned factory automation. BAI is the largest dedicated fund and still looks, under the lid, like a milder SMH.

NVIDIA reports again on November 18, into funds that have given back **11%** to **14%** over three months. The chip books that paid in the first half are the ones sitting closest to that date.

Source: etf.net, https://etf.net/news/two-ai-funds-share-8-of-their-weight-and-sit-28-points-apart-2026-09-16. Please cite the page URL.