VanEck Semiconductor ETF, known by its ticker SMH, has climbed about 45% year to date as investors keep bidding up chip makers tied to artificial intelligence spending. The fund tracks the NYSE Semiconductor Index and holds roughly 30 U.S.-listed semiconductor names under a modified market-cap-weighting scheme that caps single-stock exposure, though it still carries concentrated weight in NVIDIA and TSMC.
The latest jolt came from Advanced Micro Devices, which reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $10.25 billion, up 38% from a year earlier, and Data Center revenue of $5.78 billion, a 57% increase. AMD also lifted its second-quarter revenue guidance to $11.20 billion, and Chief Executive Lisa Su said the quarter was driven by accelerating demand for AI infrastructure, with Data Center now the primary driver of revenue and earnings growth.
That matters because SMH is one of the broadest ways investors are playing a rally that is no longer limited to the largest chip names. The semiconductor cycle has widened across accelerators, CPUs, networking chips, memory and equipment, and the customer list behind AMD’s growth now includes Meta, AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, OpenAI and Tencent. SMH’s structure gives it exposure to that mix, but its heavy links to NVIDIA and TSMC still make it less evenly spread than SOXX, which is up about 60% this year and has more balanced U.S. exposure.
FTXL has gone even further, surging close to 74% year to date, underscoring how aggressively investors are chasing the AI build-out. SMH also carries foreign exposure through ADRs, so the fund reflects not only U.S. chip demand but also the global supply chain behind it. For now, AMD’s numbers are reinforcing a simple trade: the market is still rewarding companies that can show real AI revenue, and it is doing so fast.
