By Todd Shriber
Publication Date: 2026-05-19 11:15:00
How hot are semiconductor stocks this year? In a word, scorching. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) make it easy to quantify the sizzling temperatures associated with chip stocks in 2026.
There are more than 5,200 exchange-traded products (ETPs), including ETFs, trading in the U.S., but just 120 are trading up at least 50% year to date. Of that group, 10 are “plain vanilla” semiconductor ETFs, meaning they’re not leveraged funds. Ten doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is when noting that the universe of ordinary chip ETFs isn’t densely populated.
This chip ETF is soaring without much help from Nvidia. Image source: Getty Images.
One of the 2026 leaders in the chip ETF clubhouse is the State Street SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (XSD 3.00%), though that status is arguably overlooked. That’s surprising, because this is a $3 billion tech ETF that turned 20 in January, meaning it’s neither small nor young. Those are superficial statistics, so it’s worth examining its other metrics to see whether this ETF has real meat on the bone.
The usual suspect isn’t important in this ETF
To little fanfare, this SPDR ETF is outperforming the biggest funds in the category year to date. Alone, that’s impressive, but wait until you hear the following.
Data by YCharts.
This semiconductor ETF is topping its larger rivals, with a rather diminutive 2% weight to Nvidia (NVDA 1.38%). That’s saying something, because of the 25 ETFs with the largest weights to that stock, three are dedicated chip funds. In…
