The artificial intelligence race has made semiconductors the stock market's best-performing industry in 2026, but not every ETF has benefited equally.
The gap between the strongest and weakest semiconductor ETF has stretched to nearly 40 percentage points through July 6, and it traces back to a single stock.
The Invesco Semiconductors ETF (PSI) has returned 103.6% year-to-date, according to MarketDash data. Over the same stretch, the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), the largest fund in the group with $70.59 billion in assets, has returned 66.2%.
Between them sit the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) at 91.7%, the Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF (SOXQ) at 80.45%, and the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD) at 78.33%.
The Nvidia Weight
All five funds fish from the same pond of roughly 25-50 chip names. What separates them is how much weight each assigns to Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and the other megacaps, and Nvidia is the laggard of the year. The stock is up about 5% year-to-date, while the broader complex has compounded in the triple digits.
SMH devotes 18.41% of its portfolio to Nvidia. PSI devotes 4.29%. That single spread explains most of the 37-point gap between them. SMH concentrates nearly 70% of its assets in its 10 largest holdings, while PSI spreads exposure much more evenly across its portfolio. When the largest position barely moves, a concentrated ETF has little room for other winners to compensate.
The Index Behind Each Chip ETF
The divergence is baked into the benchmarks. SMH tracks the MVIS US Listed Semiconductor 25 Index, a market-cap-weighted basket of the 25 largest names, which is why Nvidia sits near a fifth of the portfolio. PSI tracks the Dynamic Semiconductor Intellidex Index, a quantitative model that ranks stocks on momentum, quality, value and management factors rather than size, pulling weight away from megacaps and toward equipment and memory.
XSD spreads 53 holdings on a modified equal-weight basis with its top 10 at just 28.18% of assets, letting a small name count as much as a giant. SOXX applies the ICE Semiconductor Index with an 8% single-stock cap, while SOXQ fully replicates the PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index, the classic benchmark SOXX itself tracked until 2021.
What Actually Won, And Didn't, In 2026
The real drivers were memory and equipment, not the marquee AI designers. Micron Technology Inc. (MU) is up 253%. Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) is up 135%. Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) is up 110%. KLA Corp. (KLAC) is up 96%. Funds tilted toward those categories captured the move.
PSI carries 6.67% in Applied Materials, 6.17% in KLA, and 5.65% in Lam Research, and adds two hyper-gainers most rivals barely touch: Ichor Holdings Ltd. (ICHR) up 454% and Ultra Clean Holdings Inc. (UCTT) up 346%. XSD, which weights holdings almost equally, let MaxLinear Inc. (MXL) up 484% pull its full weight. Broadcom Inc. (AVGO), a top-five position in both SMH and SOXQ, gained just 8% and dragged alongside Nvidia.
Top 10 Holdings By Chip ETFs
SMH · VanEck Semiconductor ETF — YTD: +66.2% · $70.59B AUM · 26 Holdings · Top 10 = 69.49%
SOXX · iShares Semiconductor ETF — YTD: +91.7% · $42.13B AUM · 34 Holdings · Top 10 = 60.69%
XSD · SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF — YTD: +78.3% · $3.09B AUM · 53 Holdings · Top 10 = 28.18%
PSI · Invesco Dynamic Semiconductors ETF — YTD: +103.6% · $2.91B AUM · 30 Holdings · Top 10 = 49.93%
SOXQ · Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF — YTD: +80.45% · $2.70B AUM · 30 Holdings · Top 10 = 60.88%
