VanEck Semiconductor ETF Surges 64% in 2025 Without Apple
SMH has gained 64% year to date and 111% over 12 months, yet holds zero Apple shares by structural design.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF, trading under the ticker SMH, has surged 64.47% year to date through July 2 and an extraordinary 111.24% over the trailing 12 months, cementing itself as one of the standout performers in the exchange-traded fund landscape. The explosive run has drawn renewed attention to how the fund is constructed — and, notably, what it deliberately leaves out.
Despite Apple being one of the most widely recognized and heavily weighted technology stocks in the world, SMH holds zero shares of the iPhone maker. That omission is not a portfolio manager's tactical call or a bearish bet against Apple's prospects. Instead, it reflects the fund's structural mandate, which focuses exclusively on companies operating within the semiconductor industry rather than the broader technology sector.
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Apple, while a massive consumer of chips, designs its own silicon in-house and generates the overwhelming majority of its revenue from finished consumer devices and services rather than from the design, manufacture, or sale of semiconductors as a primary business. That distinction keeps it outside the fund's defined investment universe, regardless of how the stock itself performs.
The divergence highlights a meaningful difference between broad-based technology ETFs, which typically include Apple as a top holding, and sector-specific funds like SMH that apply tighter industry screens. Investors chasing pure-play exposure to the global chip cycle — driven by artificial intelligence infrastructure spending, data center expansion, and advanced manufacturing — may find that narrower mandate is precisely the point.
The fund's performance underscores how the AI-driven semiconductor boom has rewarded investors who concentrated exposure in chip-focused vehicles rather than diversified tech funds where Apple's comparatively moderate gains could dilute returns. Continue reading at Yahoo.
