BlackRock is witnessing a shift among Big Tech investors.
Jay Jacobs, the firm’s head of U.S. equity ETFs, has noticed they focus on targeted themes such as artificial intelligence.
“One of the biggest deals we’re seeing this year is simply people moving away from the traditional tech sector and getting more granular into AI-focused ETFs like BAI.” [the iShares A.I. Innovation and Tech Active ETF] from BlackRock,” Jacobs said this week on CNBC’s “ETF Edge.”
Jacobs said the fund will give investors exposure to large-scale language models in the AI ecosystem from semiconductor manufacturers.
BlackRock’s iShares website lists NVIDIA, Broadcom, Metaplatform and Microsoft as BAI’s top holdings as of this week.
Electronics technology and technology services stocks account for more than 85% of holdings, FactSet calculates. On Friday, the ETF fell about 5% along with the tech-heavy Nasdaq. However, BAI has risen 36% since its inception on October 21 last year.
“People want to play this potentially very destructive theme.”
Jacobs is also bullish on blockchain stocks, noting that strong enthusiasm for Ethereum is driving significant investor interest.
He argues that BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), a passively managed fund that tracks the spot price of Ether, has benefited from this trend. Based on Friday’s closing price, the stock is up about 42% over the past 12 weeks.
“Ethereum is really betting on blockchain technology and other uses like stablecoins and tokenization,” Jacobs said. “People want to play this potentially very subversive theme.”
The founder and CEO of Amplify ETF also sees opportunities in the crypto space. The company offers blockchain exposure through the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK). According to the Amplify ETF website, it is an actively managed fund that invests in companies directly involved in the development and implementation of blockchain infrastructure.
“There are many different use cases for blockchain, whether it’s stablecoins for payments or the tokenization of assets, which can happen with real estate or stocks,” Christian Magoon said in the same interview. “We think this is a big theme that has implications not only for technology but also for fintech and, of course, the cryptocurrency community.”
Magoon also pointed to new regulations that will be a boost for the industry. In July, President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, a stablecoin law that could increase investor confidence in stablecoins.
“We are a pioneer in this space and we believe the upward trend will continue, especially given the current administration and the regulatory moves we are seeing from exchanges and large capital market participants,” he added.
BLOK fell more than 5% on Friday, but is still up almost 89% over the past year.
