By Christine Idzelis
The ETF industry is on track to accumulate more than $2 trillion in inflows this year, says one strategist
Exchanged-traded funds listed in the U.S. are attracting capital at a “massively record pace,” says State Street’s Matthew Bartolini.
Investors have poured money into exchange-traded funds at a rapid pace in the first half of 2026, demonstrating an unrelenting appetite for stocks associated with the artificial-intelligence theme, as well as the technology space more broadly.
ETFs listed in the U.S. have attracted slightly more than $1 trillion this year through Monday. These huge inflows have left the industry on track to accumulate more than $2 trillion in inflows in 2026, said Matthew Bartolini, global head of research strategists at State Street Investment Management, in an interview with MarketWatch. That would exceed the record $1.5 trillion of inflows into ETFs seen in 2025.
Investors are “stockpiling into the tech space,” noted Bartolini. Robotics and AI have emerged as the top investing themes, followed by ETFs associated with “smart” infrastructure and space exploration, he said.
Many investors have demonstrated a “risk-on” positioning heading into the second half of 2026 – with ETFs focused on U.S. stocks taking in the largest share of equity flows, even as investors leaned into international exposure during the first half of 2026, according to Bartolini. ETFs that are broadly focused on emerging markets have pulled in around $38 billion in 2026 through Monday, which already would be a record inflow for any calendar year, he said – and it happened in just six months.
International stocks have outperformed the U.S. stock market so far this year, with ETF investors showing the most interest in Japan and South Korea in terms of single-country funds, according to Bartolini.
Check out: Japanese stocks are on fire. Here’s what’s driving the hot streak.
The AI trade has been global. South Korean memory-chip stocks SK Hynix (KR:000660) and Samsung Electronics (KR:005930) surged in the first half of 2026, as did Micron Technology (MU), a U.S.-based rival. The U.S. ETF industry pounced on the trend with the April launch of the Roundhill Memory ETF DRAM, an actively managed fund that provides exposure to shares of memory companies listed around the world.
That ETF, which trades under the ticker symbol “DRAM,” is the “big home run” of launches this year, said Aniket Ullal, head of ETF research and analytics at CFRA Research, in an interview. The Roundhill Memory ETF, which listed on April 2, has already taken in almost $20 billion of inflows through June 29, according to FactSet data. The fund has surged around 166% since its launch.
The Roundhill Memory ETF’s top holding as recently as June 29 was Micron, followed by Samsung and SK Hynix. Sandisk (SNDK) and Western Digital (WDC), both based in the U.S., are also included. Meanwhile, Japan’s Kioxia (JP:285A) was the sixth-largest weight in the ETF, according to Roundhill’s website.
Leveraged ETFs that use derivatives to make magnified bets on stocks have also been booming.
Ullal said a total 222 leveraged ETFs launched in the U.S. this year through Friday – on pace to exceed the total of 316 that launched and stayed open in 2025.
Some of the most recently launched leveraged ETFs are tied to SpaceX (SPCX), and space-themed ETFs have seen strong investor interest this year.
ETF investors have shown the technology sector a lot of love in 2026: Tech ETFs captured around 69% of all sector flows through Monday, said Bartolini.
The U.S. ETF industry now has a record $15.6 trillion under management, according to Bartolini. That’s after ETFs focused on U.S. stocks took in $441 billion during the first half of the year through Monday, or about 66% of overall flows in equities, Bartolini said.
“We’ve seen investors seek to improve their regional diversification,” he added.
The U.S. stock market rallied during the first half of this year, with the S&P 500 SPX booking a 9.6% gain, according to Dow Jones Market Data. By comparison, the iShares MSCI ACWI ex-U.S. ETF ACWX, which broadly tracks international equities excluding the U.S., has gained 13.4% during the first six months of 2026 – outperforming the S&P 500 as well as the 12.8% jump for the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP in the U.S.
-Christine Idzelis
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06-30-26 1812ET
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