BAI vs QTUM

BAIBiShares A.I. Innovation and Tech Active ETF

QTUMADefiance Quantum ETF

In short

BAI BlackRock's hands-on answer to AI index funds: about 50 global names chosen across the AI tech stack, from infrastructure to the apps on top. Fee is 0.55% net of a waiver through June 30, 2028, below the typical AI thematic fund.

QTUM Live since 2018, QTUM turns the quantum-computing story into a plain index fund: about 90 global names spanning quantum hardware and machine learning, for 0.40% a year.

Stated mandate

BAI The fund seeks active exposure to companies enabling, developing, and deploying advanced artificial-intelligence technologies across infrastructure, intelligence, and applications and services.

QTUM The Fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of the BlueStar® Quantum Computing and Machine Learning Index. It uses a passive indexing approach.

Why people hold it

• BAI Active by design: managers pick across the AI tech stack (infrastructure, intelligence, apps and services) instead of tracking a fixed index.ishares.com
• 0.55% net of a waiver through June 30, 2028 (0.65% gross) lands below the category median fee and under index-tracking peer IGPT's 0.57%.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, not a thin thematic launch nobody uses. It sits in the top quartile of its AI peer group on our review.
• The mandate is global, covering U.S. and non-U.S. AI builders rather than only the usual American megacaps.ishares.com

• QTUM 0.40% a year against a 0.68% median for its AI-theme cohort, and it undercuts peers like WTAI (0.45%) and ALAI (0.55%).
• Rules-based by design: it tracks the BlueStar Quantum Computing and Machine Learning Index, so no manager is hand-picking which quantum story wins.
• About 90 holdings across global markets, so the theme rides on a basket instead of two or three pure plays.
• Size and liquidity back it up: a multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, and one of the stronger implementations in its thematic peer group.

Worth knowing

• BAI Concentration is the trade-off: roughly 50 holdings in a single theme, so the ride follows AI sentiment far more closely than the broad market.
• Active means no index to check it against. Holdings and weights are the managers' call, and the record only starts at the October 2024 launch.
• The prospectus fee is 0.65% gross; the 0.55% you actually pay rests on a waiver that runs through June 30, 2028. Payouts come once or twice a year.

• QTUM Risk is the softest part of the profile. One narrow, early-stage theme in a single asset class means sharper swings than a broad-market fund.
• The index covers machine learning as well as quantum, so part of the basket is familiar AI exposure rather than quantum specialists.
• Distributions come quarterly, but a growth theme like this is not built around income.

Full BAI profile⁠

Full QTUM profile⁠