Most investors who want AI exposure end up overweight in five or six mega-cap names. Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (NYSEARCA:AIQ) was built to solve exactly that problem, spreading the AI investment thesis across the full value chain rather than betting it all on a handful of household names.
What Role AIQ Fills
AIQ is designed as a thematic growth holding for investors who believe AI adoption will be a multi-year structural trend but want diversification across that theme. Its return engine is straightforward: appreciation in the underlying businesses as AI drives revenue growth across software, semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, and digital services. There is no leverage and no options overlay, making it a clean, long-only expression of the AI thesis.
The fund holds 86 stocks spanning the entire AI ecosystem. The top holdings are capped near 3-4% each, so no single name dominates. Alongside familiar names like Nvidia and Microsoft, the fund carries meaningful positions in international players like SK Hynix, Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor, giving it a global semiconductor footprint that a purely US-focused tech ETF would miss. Semiannual rebalancing keeps the weights in check.
Does It Deliver?
AIQ’s long-term track record supports its thematic premise. More recently, its 29.3% one-year return through early 2026 nearly doubled the roughly 13% posted by both SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) over the same period, demonstrating that its broader value-chain exposure has translated into genuine outperformance rather than just benchmark-tracking with extra fees.
The Tradeoffs
The fund’s concentration is both its strength and its risk. Over 60% of assets sit in information technology and communication services, meaning a rotation out of tech or a broad AI sentiment shift hits AIQ hard with little cushion from defensive sectors. The 0.68% expense ratio is higher than a broad index fund, a cost that compounds over time and requires sustained outperformance to justify. International exposure to Chinese names like Tencent and Alibaba also introduces geopolitical risk that pure domestic tech ETFs avoid.
Bottom Line
AIQ offers diversified AI exposure beyond the mega-cap names, but its narrow thematic focus and elevated fees distinguish it from broad-market holdings. Investors researching thematic AI exposure may want to weigh those tradeoffs against their existing portfolio construction.
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