Nobody would be surprised by the fact that we’ve had a rush of Actively Managed ETFs (AMETFs) listing on the JSE. With the recent Benguela Global Fund Managers going live earlier in August, we now have four with AI in the name.
Before we dig in, we also need to understand a few important points.
Firstly, there is no pure AI listed company in the world. OpenAI and Anthropic are not listed so instead we have Alphabet and Microsoft with their AI offerings. Adding to that of course is chips, memory, power, property etc. So these really are AI enabling stocks.
Secondly, for some of these AMETFs it is still very early days and hence we lack much data. Including for example what the TER or TIC will be as that takes a year to get the data.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly is that these are all active because there is no real established AI index from any of the major index providers. Yes we have lots of AI indices, but methodology is all over the place.
Click on ETF code for the ETF detailed page.
| ETF | EASYAI | SYFANG | BGFMAI | IVYAI |
| Manager | EasyAssetManagement | Sygnia | Benguela Global Fund Managers | Ivy Asset Management |
| Name | EasyETFs AI World Actively Managed ETF | Sygnia Itrix FANG.AI Actively Managed ETF | Benguela EasyETFs Global AI Revolution Actively Managed ETF | Ivy EasyETFs AI Innovation Actively Managed ETF |
| TIC | 1.06% | 1.20% | – | – |
| Distribution | Annual | Semi-annual | Semi-annual | Annual |
| Size | R748million | R984million | R5million | R112million |
| Benchmark | Morningstar Global Artificial Intelligence Select Index | NYSE® FANG+™Index | MSCI ACWI | S&P500 |
| Top ten holdings | USD Cash (7.01%), Lumentum Holdings (6.32%), Comfort Systems (6.29%), Bloom Energy Corp Class A (5.53%), Micron Technology (4.76%), Nvidia Corp (4.75%), Vicor Corp (4.65%), GE Vernova (4.49%), Coherent Corp (4.44%), FormFactor Inc (4.25%) | Micron Technology Ord Shs (11.3%), Amazon Com Ord Shs (10.2%), Meta Platforms Ord Shs Class A (10.1%), Microsoft Ord Shs (10.0%), Alphabet Ord Shs Class A (10.0%), Apple Ord Shs (10.0%), NVIDIA Ord Shs (10.0%), Broadcom Ord Shs (9.8%), Netflix Ord Shs (9.5%), Palantir Technologies Ord Shs Class A (9.1%) | No holding data as it is literally a few weeks old. | Micron Tech 4.81% Palantir Techn-A 4.43% AMD 4.01% Amazon.Com Inc 3.94%, Alphabet Inc-C 3.91%, Tesla Inc 3.7%, Intel Corp 3.66%, Palo Alto Networ 3.4%, Nvidia Corp 3.07%, Crowdstrike Ho-A 3.03% |
Some of the stocks included in the top holdings stretch the definition (to my mind) of pure AI. But then is AI not everywhere? I remember the early 2000s and the rise of Internet companies. Did a website or email address qualify? And now fast forward to 2025, and every company has the Internet.
So take Netflix. Do they use AI in their business? Absolutely. Are they an AI company? Not in the sense that OpenAI is, but certainly part of their growth is dependent on their use of AI in both production but also customer expereince. So then they surely are in part an AI stock.
Returns over last year to close 18 August as below.
AI AMETFs
So my thoughts.
I always like to see new innovation, but I have no interest in investing here. I have enough tech and I don’t see any real difference here beyond a skew to AI, which most tech is these days anyway as I comment above. Every company is to some degree an AI company.
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ETF blog
At Just One Lap, we are big fans of passive investment using ETFs. In this weekly blog, we discuss ETFs on the local market and the factors you need to consider when choosing an ETF. If you have wondered how one ETF differs from another, this is where you can find out. We explain which index each ETF tracks, what type of portfolio could benefit from holding each ETF, and how the costs will affect your bottom line.
