NEW YORK, June 15 (Our New York News) — The iShares Semiconductor ETF, a BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) fund that tracks the NYSE Semiconductor Index, has become one of Wall Street’s strongest sector trades this year as investors pour money into chip companies tied to artificial intelligence and data centers.
Fox Business reported June 9 that the fund, which trades under ticker SOXX, was up 89% year to date.
The surge has put a narrow semiconductor fund near the center of the market’s AI trade and rewarded investors who used exchange-traded funds to gain exposure to chipmakers rather than picking individual stocks.
BlackRock identifies SOXX as the iShares Semiconductor ETF and says it tracks the NYSE Semiconductor Index. That gives investors a single fund built around semiconductor companies, a part of the market that has drawn heavy attention in 2026.
The rally has been widely linked to demand for the physical build-out behind AI, including chips and data-center infrastructure. Market coverage reviewed for this report has consistently tied the gains in semiconductor funds to continued spending on AI systems and the hardware needed to run them.
IDC said in an April forecast that the semiconductor market would exceed $1 trillion in revenue by the end of 2026, a projection that has helped frame the industry’s current growth outlook.
For New York City investors and market professionals, the move reflects how strongly Wall Street has shifted toward the hardware side of AI. Instead of focusing only on software or consumer-facing applications, investors have increasingly used public-market funds to target the companies expected to supply the chips and related systems behind that expansion.
The rise in SOXX also shows the appeal of sector ETFs during fast-moving market cycles. A fund tied to one industry can offer broader exposure than a single stock while still giving investors a concentrated bet on a theme such as semiconductors.
That concentration can magnify gains when sentiment and earnings expectations move in the same direction. In 2026, semiconductor shares have been among the clearest beneficiaries of that trend.
BlackRock’s fund materials in the research reviewed for this story confirm the ETF’s identity and benchmark. The broader market narrative around the fund’s sharp advance has centered on AI-related chip demand and the growing need for data-center capacity.
