Zinger Key Points
- The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust was the first U.S. based ETF launched.
- A look back at the key moment and how much an investment in the first ETF would be worth today.
The first U.S. based exchange-traded fund turns 32 years old today and is one of the most popular ETFs today.
Here's a look at the history of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY and how much an investment at launch would be worth today.
What Happened: Launched with seed funding of $6.5 million, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust became the first U.S. ETF on Jan. 22, 1993.
The ETF was approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission several years after State Street Corp. STT applied for the fund.
Initial interest in the ETF was poor and the fund was almost closed before investors came around to the idea of using ETFs as investment vehicles.
The success of the SPY ETF led to other financial institutions launching similar ETFs that track the S&P 500 Index, one of the largest and most well-known stock market indexes.
The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF IVV and Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund ETF VOO launched in 2000 and 2010, respectively.
Today, the three ETFs that track the S&P 500 are the largest in the world according to ETFDB with the following assets under management:
- SPY: $623.5 million
- VOO: $603.1 million
- IVV: $594.2 million
After posting its worst one-year performance in more than a decade for the 2022 year, the S&P 500 Index, which features 500 leading U.S. publicly traded companies, with a primary emphasis on market capitalization, saw outperformance in 2023, ending the year up over 20% and riding a streak of winning weeks. The ETF followed up the rebound with a 24.9% gain in 2024.
In 2024, the S&P 500 reached new all-time highs on numerous occasions, boosted by soaring valuations for technology stocks.
Here are the current top holdings of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF at the time of writing:
- Nvidia Corporation NVDA: 6.7%
- Apple Inc AAPL: 6.6%
- Microsoft Corporation MSFT: 6.2%
- Amazon.com Inc AMZN: 4.2%
- Meta Platforms META: 2.6%
- Tesla Inc TSLA: 2.3%
- Alphabet Inc Class A GOOGL: 2.3%
- Broadcom Inc AVGO: 2.2%
- Alphabet Inc Class C GOOG: 1.9%
- Berkshire Hathaway Class B BRK: 1.7%
Investing $1,000 in SPY Stock: While the idea of ETFs was new at the time, investors who followed State Street into the idea of a new investment vehicle to track the S&P 500 would have been pleasantly rewarded.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF traded at around $43.61 in its first days of trading. A $1,000 investment could have purchased 22.93 shares at the time.
The $1,000 investment would be worth $13,930.20 today based on a price of $607.51 for the SPY at the time of writing. This represents a hypothetical return of $1,293.0% over the past 32 years.
Investors who bought the SPY on Jan. 22, 1993, based on a price of $25.02 adjusted for dividends would have an even larger return. The SPY has an adjusted price of $25.02 when adjusted for dividends, which means a $1,000 investment could have purchased 39.97 shares.
The $1,000 investment would be worth $24,282.17 today. This represents a hypothetical return of 2,328.2% over the past 32 years.
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This article was previously published by Benzinga and has been updated.
Image: Shutterstock
© 2025 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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