NEW YORK, June 15 (Our New York News) — BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK)’s iShares Semiconductor ETF is drawing renewed attention in New York markets as the artificial-intelligence buildout lifts chip stocks, with recent market reports putting the fund’s year-to-date gain at 89%.
The fund, traded under ticker SOXX, tracks the NYSE Semiconductor Index, according to BlackRock. That gives investors a single exchange-traded product tied to a narrow group of semiconductor companies at a time when chips and AI-related data-center hardware have become a major market theme.
The strong move in SOXX has added to the dominance of semiconductor and AI-infrastructure funds in the ETF market this year. For investors, the appeal is a basket approach: exposure to a group of chip companies rather than a bet on just one stock.
IDC forecast in April that the semiconductor market would exceed $1 trillion in revenue by the end of 2026. That outlook has reinforced the view that the industry is in a strong upcycle tied to demand for artificial intelligence systems and the physical data-center infrastructure needed to run them.
The gains matter beyond traders. Rising interest in semiconductor funds can direct more capital toward chipmakers, while also shaping expectations for companies that sell into the AI supply chain and for large customers building out computing capacity.
Secondary fund profiles reviewed by Times Media Service identify Micron Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Nasdaq: AMD), Broadcom Inc. (Nasdaq: AVGO), Nvidia Corp. (Nasdaq: NVDA) and Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) among major positions in SOXX. Those companies span several of the core technologies used in AI servers and data centers, including memory, graphics processors, central processors and communications chips.
Because SOXX is tied to one industry, its performance can move more sharply than that of broader stock-market ETFs. Reports earlier in the spring placed the fund’s gain at more than 45% for the year at that point, before later market reports cited a much larger rise in June, underscoring how quickly semiconductor shares have advanced.
The rally has not been limited to one product. Other semiconductor-focused ETFs have also posted strong gains in 2026, pointing to broad investor demand for exposure to chipmakers and related infrastructure rather than a single-company trade.
For New York City’s financial sector, the move has kept semiconductor funds near the center of market conversations. Advisers, institutional investors and individual traders have increasingly used sector ETFs as a way to express a view on continued spending for AI servers, networking gear and data-center expansion.
BlackRock’s official fund materials identify SOXX as the iShares Semiconductor ETF and say it tracks the NYSE Semiconductor Index. As long as investor confidence remains tied to AI spending and chip demand, the fund is likely to remain one of the market’s most closely watched sector ETFs.
