DTCR vs TCAI

DTCRAGlobal X Data Center & Digital Infrastructure ETF

TCAIBTortoise AI Infrastructure ETF

In short

DTCR Launched in 2020, before the AI buildout hit headlines, DTCR buys the plumbing: data center REITs, cell towers, and the gear wiring them together. Roughly two dozen names, global, priced under the typical infrastructure theme fund.

TCAI A stock picker's run at the AI buildout. TCAI is actively managed with no index to follow, aiming at the companies that supply AI infrastructure, and it prices right at the middle of its small niche.

Stated mandate

DTCR DTCR seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the Solactive Data Center REITs & Digital Infrastructure Index. Its index-based portfolio targets companies operating data centers, cellular towers, or digital-infrastructure hardware supporting communications networks.

TCAI The Fund invests with an emphasis on companies involved in AI infrastructure. It is actively managed and does not seek to track an index.

Why people hold it

• DTCR Narrow by design: an index-based portfolio of companies operating data centers, cellular towers, or the digital-infrastructure hardware behind communications networks.globalxetfs.com
• Costs 0.50% a year, a shade below the median expense ratio in its infrastructure-theme peer group.
• A multi-billion-dollar fund that trades actively, so buying or selling a normal-sized position seldom means hunting for the other side.
• Live since 2020, with a global mandate rather than a US-only one, and it sits in the upper half of its infrastructure cohort.

• TCAI No index, no rulebook. The managers pick the AI infrastructure names themselves, so the portfolio can shift as the buildout does rather than wait for a quarterly reconstitution.
• At 0.65% a year it lands on the median fee for its AI infrastructure cohort, and under the 0.69% charged by Defiance's AIPO, despite being run actively.
• In a crowded new corner (seven funds chasing AI infrastructure), this one grades out in the upper half on our review.
• Liquidity is a bright spot: it changes hands often enough that getting in and out is one of the smoother parts of owning it, unusual for a fund this new.

Worth knowing

• DTCR Concentrated: around 25 holdings, so a handful of tower and data center landlords set the tone for the whole fund.
• REITs sit at the core of the index, and REITs borrow heavily to build, so financing costs can matter as much as AI demand.
• Broad infrastructure funds like IFRA and IGF charge less and spread across utilities, transport and energy. DTCR trades that breadth for one theme.

• TCAI Launched in August 2025, so the track record is thin. There is not yet enough history to judge how it behaves through a full market cycle.
• Active costs more here. Index-run peers in the same niche, Franklin's XDAT at 0.50% and ProShares' DAT at 0.58%, undercut it.
• Distributions come once or twice a year, and the fund is still mid-sized rather than a giant. This is a growth-theme holding, not an income line item.

Full DTCR profile⁠

Full TCAI profile⁠