NEW YORK, June 22, 2026, 13:05 EDT
- VanEck Semiconductor ETF got $6.93 billion in net inflows in a single day, 8.78% of its assets, making it the second biggest ETF creation on ETF.com’s June 18 list.
- The SMH inflow made up roughly 32% of the $21.46 billion investors put into U.S. technology sector funds in the week to June 17, according to ETF.com and LSEG Lipper.
- Chip stocks were up Monday even as some of the big tech buyers of AI hardware moved lower.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF saw nearly $7 billion pour in on Monday, the biggest sign yet of investors looking beyond just Nvidia and into a basket of chip suppliers. That flow is making its mark. Semiconductor stocks climbed on the day, while the big tech names dragged the Nasdaq lower.
The timing is key. LSEG Lipper data said U.S. equity funds picked up $38.37 billion for the week ended June 17, the biggest since November 2024. Technology sector funds got a record $21.46 billion in the same period. SMH’s one-day creation made up about a third of those tech inflows, showing just how much the AI trade is passing through a handful of ETFs.
ETF plumbing doesn’t get much attention. Authorized participants—often big broker-dealers—can make new ETF shares by handing over cash or a basket of stocks to the fund and getting ETF shares back. If more buyers want the ETF than there are shares, this can drain liquidity from the stocks underneath and move it into the ETF itself.
SMH’s most recent holdings suggest a $6.93 billion creation basket matching its weights would hold around $1.27 billion of Nvidia, $620 million of Taiwan Semiconductor, and almost $400 million each in Broadcom and Micron. Actual creation baskets can vary and sometimes use cash, but the size explains why the flow matters beyond just headline investor appetite.
GraniteShares 2x Long NVDA Daily ETF saw $824 million in outflows and Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3x Shares dropped $270 million, according to the same ETF.com table. SMH, meanwhile, brought in a big creation. That suggests investors shifted money into unlevered, broad chip exposure rather than chasing more Nvidia leverage.
Investors are splitting AI-related names into spenders and suppliers, said David Wagner at Aptus Capital Advisors. He said the market is picking out companies “receiving the checks” versus those “writing the checks.” Alphabet slid 6.1% Monday. Micron and Sandisk traded higher, and the Philadelphia semiconductor index added 1% to hit a record. Reuters
Memory chips have caught up with graphics processors in importance for this trade. Reuters said Monday that SK Hynix has passed Samsung Electronics as the most valuable company on South Korea’s stock market, driven by demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, the stacked memory used in AI gear. “Customised AI memory has changed the industry’s economics,” said Kim Sunwoo, a senior analyst at Meritz Securities. Reuters
SMH covers the wider semiconductor supply chain. VanEck data from June 18 showed 26 holdings, with Nvidia at 18.34%, Taiwan Semiconductor at 8.94%, Broadcom at 5.71%, Micron at 5.55%, and AMD at 5.18%. Investors get stakes in chip designers, foundries, memory, and equipment firms, not only the biggest AI accelerator company.
That’s been the pitch for SMH among retail investors. 24/7 Wall St. looked at SMH as a play on the AI trade, similar to Nvidia, but with a wider net across foundry, memory, and other chip names. The site said SMH beat Nvidia year to date through June 16. But it’s the new inflows that matter more now, showing fresh cash backing that idea.
SMH faces competition from iShares Semiconductor ETF and Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF, both tracking the same sector but with different baskets. David Dierking at Motley Fool said June 20 that SOXX and SOXQ lean more on smaller chip firms, while SMH stacks up heavier in megacaps. SOXQ’s 0.19% expense ratio comes in below SOXX’s, he wrote.
The risk is in the same pipes. If Micron’s numbers this week fall short, inflation numbers harden Fed tightening bets, or doubts stick around hyperscaler spending, the creation trade can flip to redemptions. Then, that same tight basket that made SMH an AI play could turn into a quicker de-risk for chip names.
The surprise driver isn’t only Nvidia, HBM or fresh AI spending this time. It’s the surge of ETF demand against a tight portfolio, as buyers favor suppliers over customers. That’s making a one-day move in SMH flows more telling for the AI trade than another upbeat chip stock forecast.
