JPMorgan Asset Management's new "Guide to ETFs" (July 2026) ranks AI-themed exchange-traded funds as a top-five theme by assets under management, even as the sector experienced significant volatility in Q2 2026. Jon Maier, JPMorgan's chief ETF strategist, told CNBC that many investment themes are morphing toward AI and the broader AI ecosystem, signaling sustained investor appetite despite recent market turbulence.
JPMorgan data shows that mutual fund inflows are meaningfully slowing while ETFs are attracting more capital. The firm reports negative overall inflows into mutual funds over the past several years, with ETFs capturing an increasing share of retail and institutional money. Maier highlighted tax efficiency as a key driver: ETFs typically avoid capital gains taxes on holders, whereas mutual funds distribute capital gains annually—a material disadvantage for investors who had losses in 2022–2025 but still owe gains on fund distributions.
The report emphasizes overlap between AI-themed ETF holdings and infrastructure plays (energy, semiconductor manufacturing, data center operators, networking), as these supply chains support AI model deployment. This overlap reinforces the "AI ecosystem" framing: investors aren't just buying model-company equities but hedging across the stack—compute, power, cooling, and networking layers.
For portfolio managers and advisors, the data suggests retail capital continues to flow toward AI exposure through ETF products despite near-term volatility. Mistral's infrastructure partnership and AMD's server-CPU announcements align with this ecosystem bet: the market is pricing in sustained capex and deployment phases, not just model releases.