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Sunday's Exclusive Article Find the Next NVIDIA With This Semiconductor ETFSubmitted by Jordan Chussler. Article Published: 1/2/2026. 
Key Points - Last year, NVIDIA outperformed the market, but other semiconductor stocks posted better gains.
- The SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF holds a basket of semiconductor stocks that can provide investors with broad industry exposure.
- In 2025, the fund returned more than 29%—better than the tech sector and the broad S&P 500.
The AI trade proved its worth again last year: tech stocks finished up more than 22%, helping the sector outperform the broad S&P 500 for the 11th time in 12 years. When it comes to pure-play AI stocks, NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) receives the lion’s share of attention. The Magnificent Seven mainstay and the largest publicly traded company by market cap gained nearly 36% in 2025 and is up 1,336% over the past five years. Wall Street Legend Who Called 2022 Bear Issues New Warning
50-year Wall Street legend Marc Chaikin called the 2022 bear market, the 2023 bank failures, the 2020 crash, and the 2025 tariff tantrum – all in advance. In light of the recent volatility, he's now stepping forward to warn of a "violent market shift" headed straight for U.S. stocks in early 2026. Here's how to prepare. Despite its accolades, NVIDIA actually played second fiddle to another AI-leveraged semiconductor company last year: Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU), which arguably won 2025’s AI race with an impressive gain of more than 235%. For investors hunting the next big semiconductor stock, the smarter approach is often not to pin hopes on a single company. Instead, a thematic ETF that provides broad industry exposure can help identify up-and-coming semiconductor names. The U.S. Semiconductor Market Is Rapidly Expanding Industry consultancy Grand View Research estimates the U.S. semiconductor market was $9.17 billion in 2024 and projects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3% from 2025 through 2030. Grand View notes much of that growth will be driven by rising demand across wired and wireless communications, consumer and industrial electronics, automotive electronics, computing and data storage, among other applications. Specific to the United States, the report highlights that the “semiconductor devices industry is witnessing a surge in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things (IoT)-driven chip designs.” A McKinsey report published in November 2025 projects the global semiconductor market could be worth as much as $1 trillion by 2030, with the United States accounting “for 30% of advanced-node semiconductor fabrication capacity.” Still, amid a landscape full of startups aiming to take share from dominant players like NVIDIA and Micron, picking the next breakout semiconductor stock can feel like taking a shot in the dark. For ETF investors, however, a fund’s holdings can provide a useful window into which companies may emerge as industry leaders. A One-Stop-Shop Thematic Semiconductor ETF The SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF (NYSEARCA: XSD) offers broad exposure to the industry. Managed by State Street, the fund “allows investors to take strategic or tactical positions at a more targeted level than traditional sector-based investing.” The XSD has $1.61 billion in assets under management and carries a net expense ratio of 0.35%. Its dividend yield of 0.25% (about $0.82 per share annually) offsets some of that cost. What may surprise some investors is that while NVIDIA is included in the XSD’s holdings, it ranks only 19th by weight. That stems from the fund’s goal to closely track the S&P Semiconductor Select Industry Index. That benchmark is a modified equal-weight index: it starts with equal allocations but can cap the largest stocks to ensure smaller companies receive meaningful exposure. Currently, the index favors companies such as Micron, Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), SiTime (NASDAQ: SITM), and MACOM Technology Solutions (NASDAQ: MTSI), which together make up the ETF’s top-five holdings. For additional context, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD), which gained nearly 79% last year, holds the sixth-largest allocation. The XSD’s Strong Performance May Continue In 2025, the ETF gained more than 29%—outperforming the broader tech sector (22.3%) and the S&P 500 (17.51%). With multiple tailwinds supporting the semiconductor industry heading into 2026, Wall Street is broadly expecting another solid year for the space. Based on 675 analyst ratings of the top 25 companies in the SPDR S&P Semiconductor ETF—covering more than 75% of its portfolio—the fund carries a Moderate Buy rating. The majority of its holdings are rated Moderate Buy, Buy, or Strong Buy, while just one company is rated Sell. Reinforcing that view, current short interest heading into 2026 stands at just 2.22% of the float (roughly $34 million), a steep decline from the $4.97 billion of shares that were shorted on June 30.
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