NEW YORK, June 15 (Our New York News) — The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) was up 89% year to date as of June 9, according to market-performance data reported by Fox Business, as investors continued to favor chip stocks tied to artificial intelligence and data-center spending.
The rally has made the BlackRock-sponsored fund one of the standout exchange-traded funds of 2026 and has increased the market impact of semiconductor companies for investors who hold sector ETFs, brokerage accounts and retirement portfolios with chip exposure.
BlackRock’s iShares product page identifies the fund as the iShares Semiconductor ETF and says it tracks the NYSE Semiconductor Index. The fund gives investors exposure to publicly traded semiconductor companies rather than to a single stock.
The move reflects a broader market bet that artificial intelligence will keep driving demand for chips and the physical infrastructure needed to run large data centers. That demand affects chipmakers, cloud-computing customers, data-center operators and workers across the semiconductor supply chain.
Fox Business reported that semiconductor revenue reached $298.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 25% from the fourth quarter of 2025. The report also cited an April forecast from IDC projecting that the semiconductor market would exceed $1 trillion in revenue by the end of 2026.
The IDC forecast, as cited in financial-market coverage, has helped frame the industry’s current upcycle. The supplied materials did not include the full IDC report, so the precise scope and methodology of the projection could not be independently reviewed from the brief.
The iShares fund’s performance has been closely tied to large chip stocks. Yahoo Finance, citing fund holdings data, listed Micron Technology Inc. (MU), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Broadcom Inc. (AVGO), NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) and Intel Corp. (INTC) as the fund’s five largest holdings in a May profile.
The same profile said those five holdings accounted for about 40% of the fund’s value at the time, with Micron at 9.97%, Advanced Micro Devices at 8.88%, Broadcom at 7.29%, NVIDIA at 7.05% and Intel at 6.73%. ETF holdings can change as index weights and market prices move.
Those companies are among the public-market beneficiaries of spending on semiconductors used in AI systems, high-performance computing and data-center equipment. Their share prices can have an outsized effect on sector funds when the funds are concentrated in a small group of large holdings.
The rise in SOXX also follows earlier gains in semiconductor-linked ETFs this year. A late-April market report said the iShares Semiconductor ETF had risen more than 45% at that point. By June 9, Fox Business reported the year-to-date gain at 89%, reflecting a sharp advance over the following weeks or different measurement timing.
Another semiconductor fund, the Invesco PHLX Semiconductor ETF, was reported by Benzinga in mid-April to be up 20% over the prior month and 25% year to date. The underlying pricing source for that figure was not identified in the supplied materials.
The chip rally has centered on investor expectations that large technology companies and cloud providers will keep spending heavily on AI infrastructure. That spending has supported demand for processors, memory chips, networking equipment and related data-center components.
For investors, the gains have rewarded portfolios that were already tilted toward semiconductor stocks. They also increase exposure to a cyclical industry whose revenue can rise or fall with capital spending by technology companies and other large customers.
BlackRock’s role is limited to sponsoring the ETF and managing the product according to its stated benchmark. The supplied materials did not identify any announced or completed corporate transaction involving the fund, nor any regulatory action, court filing or enforcement proceeding tied to the ETF’s 2026 performance.
The fund’s reported rise comes as semiconductors and the physical buildout of AI data centers dominate the ETF market’s strongest sector themes. The clearest financial impact has been on shareholders of semiconductor ETFs and on the publicly traded chip companies that make up their holdings.
