PQUS vs TACU

PQUSAPictet AI Enhanced US Equity ETF

TACUAT. Rowe Price Active Core U.S. Equity ETF

In short

PQUS An S&P 500 challenger on a short leash: an AI-driven model makes small tilts around the benchmark instead of big bets, and charges 0.22% a year, roughly a third of what the typical active US equity fund costs.

TACU T. Rowe Price's quant-plus-fundamental take on core large-cap U.S. stock, benchmarked to the Russell 1000. Gross fee 0.14%, fully waived to zero through January 30, 2027.

Stated mandate

PQUS The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation. It is an actively managed ETF using an AI-enhanced, low-tracking-error strategy to invest in U.S. equity securities and seek to outperform the S&P 500 Index.

TACU The fund seeks long-term capital growth through a primarily U.S. equity portfolio. It combines quantitative models with fundamental, bottom-up analysis and seeks excess returns relative to the Russell 1000 Index.

Why people hold it

• PQUS Costs 0.22% a year versus a 0.65% median for active US equity funds, and undercuts most competitors that benchmark themselves to the S&P 500 (TSPA, JPEF, HELO all charge more).
• Low tracking error is the whole design. The model tilts around the S&P 500 rather than wandering off it, so the portfolio keeps broad large-cap US exposure while the active work happens at the margins.
• A cheap active wrapper from a European house building out a US lineup: 1940 Act ETF, US equities only, one stated job, which is long-term capital appreciation against the S&P 500.
• Grades in the top quartile of the active US equity funds we cover, with the low fee doing much of the work.

• TACU Fee fully waived: 0.14% gross, zero net through January 30, 2027. That sits below every top-scoring peer in the category, including DFAU at 0.12% with no waiver.troweprice.com
• Quant models feed bottom-up stock picking with tilts to profitability, quality and value, chasing excess return over the Russell 1000 while holding tracking error tight.troweprice.com
• Several hundred large-cap names, so no single position runs the show. One of the stronger profiles in a crowded active U.S. equity field.troweprice.com

Worth knowing

• PQUS A 2026 launch, so the live record is short. Any read on how the model handles a real drawdown rests on limited history.
• Small and thinly traded next to the index giants, so bid-ask spreads and order size matter more here than with a mega-fund.
• Hugging the index cuts both ways: by design, the gap between this and a plain S&P 500 fund stays narrow in either direction. It also targets appreciation, not income.

• TACU Launched in December 2025, so the live record is short and the risk read rests on limited history.
• Still a small fund that trades lightly, which can mean wider spreads than the category's giants.
• Distributions are annual at most, with no declared income target. This is a growth mandate, not a cash-flow one.

Full PQUS profile⁠

Full TACU profile⁠