AIUP vs DFAU

AIUPDFINQ FIRST U.S. Large Cap AI-Managed Equity ETF

DFAUADimensional US Core Equity Market ETF

In short

AIUP The stock picker here is a machine. FINQ's adaptive AI model hunts inside the S&P 500 roster and builds an active large-cap book that owes nothing to index weights. Familiar names, algorithmic calls.

DFAU Active management priced like an index fund. Dimensional spreads across roughly 2,400 US stocks, then tilts the weights toward value, profitability and momentum instead of simply mirroring the Russell 3000.

Stated mandate

AIUP The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation.

DFAU Seeks long-term capital appreciation. It uses an integrated research, portfolio-design, management, and trading process to build a broadly diversified portfolio of U.S. companies while balancing long-term return drivers, risk, shorter-term considerations, and trading costs.

Why people hold it

• AIUP The mandate is literal: US large caps drawn from S&P 500 companies, selected by FINQ's proprietary adaptive AI model, with no obligation to track that index.
• One job, stated plainly. The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation, with no income sleeve, hedging overlay, or derivatives story to decode.
• The hunting ground is familiar. Holdings come from household-name US large caps, so the active risk sits in selection and weighting, not in exotic corners of the market.

• DFAU Charges 0.12% a year, well under the 0.65% median for active US equity funds and the cheapest of the top-graded names in its group (AVLC, DFAC, FELC).
• Holds roughly 2,400 US companies, so no single name steers the fund. Whole-market coverage, not a concentrated bet.
• Active without the stock-picking drama: it leans weights toward value, profitability and momentum, using the Russell 3000 as its reference point rather than a rigid rulebook.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the strongest overall implementations in its active US equity peer group.

Worth knowing

• AIUP At 0.70%, it prices above the typical US active equity fund and several times index-tracking core rivals such as DFAU (0.12%) or FELC (0.18%).
• A small fund that trades lightly. Spreads can be wider than in the category's giants, so execution quality is worth checking at the time of the trade.
• Short history, closed box. There is only about a year of risk data to judge the model across conditions, and its picks are not explained trade by trade.

• DFAU Those tilts cut both ways: results can drift from a plain Russell 3000 fund for long stretches, in either direction.
• No published index behind it. The trade-off for flexibility is that you're buying Dimensional's process, not a public set of rules you can check line by line.
• Distributions land quarterly, not monthly, and the mandate is long-term capital appreciation rather than income.

Full AIUP profile⁠

Full DFAU profile⁠