After Comparing Every AI ETF, These 3 Beat the Nasdaq Without Betting on a Single Stock

The Nasdaq 100 has climbed astir 11% truthful acold successful 2026, a respectable tally successful a twelvemonth that has been unkind to speculative growth. Every AI ETF worthy screening had to wide that barroom to warrant its other fees and thematic risk. Three did truthful with country to spare: Invesco AI and Next Gen Software ETF (NYSEARCA:IGPT), Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF (NYSEARCA:CHAT), and Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (NASDAQ:AIQ).

Each of the 3 has topped the Nasdaq twelvemonth to day and implicit the trailing year, and nary of them thin connected a azygous banal to bash it. The largest presumption successful immoderate of the 3 sits astatine astir 7% of assets. That matters due to the fact that galore thematic funds marketed arsenic AI plays fundamentally replicate a top-heavy Nasdaq vulnerability and complaint much for the packaging. These 3 instrumentality antithetic paths to the aforesaid result.

Why AI ETFs Have Outrun the Index

The show spread betwixt AI-labeled funds and the Nasdaq 100 successful this rhythm has little to bash with superb banal picking than with what QQQ leaves out. Foreign spot and representation suppliers specified arsenic Samsung, SK hynix, and TSMC beryllium extracurricular the Nasdaq 100 and person carried a disproportionate stock of the AI capex cycle. Any AI ETF that owns them successful size has structural vulnerability the scale cannot replicate. That is the structural mechanics down the show gap.

Don't wait: the expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable revealed his apical 10 AI stocks. See the afloat database FREE now.

Invesco AI and Next Gen Software ETF (IGPT)

In the growth-focused ETF space, IGPT stands retired connected this database by returns. The money is up astir 47% twelvemonth to day and astir 73% implicit the past year, good up of the Nasdaq 100's 20% one-year gain. It tracks the STOXX World AC NexGen Software Development index, which screens for companies generating meaningful gross from AI, large information analytics, and next-generation software, according to Invesco's prospectus filing.

The concern logic is narrower than the sanction suggests. IGPT weights toward semiconductor and bundle firms with nonstop AI merchandise vulnerability alternatively than a broader exertion basket. That attraction explains some the outperformance and the volatility. The money pulled backmost astir 12% successful the past period arsenic high-multiple bundle names sold off, a reminder that the aforesaid holdings driving the gains tin determination rapidly successful reverse.