VanEck Semiconductor ETF Surges 64% in 2025 Without Apple
SMH has climbed 64% year to date and 111% over 12 months, yet holds zero Apple shares by design.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF, trading under the ticker SMH, has delivered one of the most striking performances in the ETF universe, surging 64.47% year to date through July 2 and an extraordinary 111.24% over the trailing 12 months — all without owning a single share of Apple, one of the most widely held technology stocks in the world.
The absence of Apple from the fund's holdings is not a portfolio manager's bet against the iPhone maker. It is structural, baked into the ETF's mandate to track companies whose core business is the design, manufacture, or distribution of semiconductors. Apple, despite its enormous influence over chip demand, is primarily a consumer hardware and services company — a distinction that keeps it out of SMH's index methodology entirely.
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The fund's remarkable run reflects the broader explosion in demand for semiconductors driven by artificial intelligence infrastructure buildout, data center expansion, and next-generation computing needs. Chipmakers and equipment suppliers have become ground-zero beneficiaries of that capital spending wave, and a pure-play semiconductor ETF like SMH captures that exposure more directly than broad technology funds that dilute returns across dozens of sectors.
For investors, SMH's performance underscores a growing divergence inside the technology sector itself. Owning "tech" is no longer a monolithic decision — the companies actually fabricating and designing the silicon powering AI workloads have dramatically outpaced even mega-cap platform companies over the past year, raising questions about whether that gap can persist as valuations stretch.
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