Nvidia, AMD And The AI Arms Race: 3 Explosive ETFs To Watch Right Now

The latest salvos from AMD AMD and Nvidia NVDA suggest that the AI arms race is just heating up. As both chip giants make major moves, ETF investors might want to buckle up. The silicon showdown is powering up three key ETFs with wide exposure to this high-stakes drama.

Three ETFs With Front-Row Seats To The Chip Wars

Before jumping into the silicon slugfest, let’s examine where investors are quietly piling up for the next stage of AI-infused growth:

VanEck Semiconductor ETF SMH

Both Nvidia and AMD are among SMH’s top five holdings (with Nvidia enjoying the biggest chunk of the portfolio), making it the ETF for those seeking a taste of both old-school dominance and emerging underdog traction. With semiconductor demand surging, particularly in AI hardware, SMH provides a balanced means to bet on both sides of this GPU war. The fund price has surged more than 26% in the past month.

Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF BOTZ

BOTZ is focused on the AI and automation ecosystem. With exposure to Nvidia and other players in the AI infrastructure space, this fund is well-placed to take advantage of the Saudi Arabian $1 trillion AI initiative, autonomous robotics growth, and accelerated chip adoption in enterprises. The fund is up more than 15% in the past month.

iShares Semiconductor ETF SOXX

SOXX moves into chipmakers fueling both data center acceleration and consumer tech demand. AMD’s RX 9060 XT and Nvidia’s new RTX 5060 make SOXX an ETF to consider for investors seeking exposure to the retail gaming space, a category often overlooked in the context of institutional AI mania. The ETF has gained more than 24% in the past month.

AMD: A Threadripper Awakening At Computex

At Computex 2025, AMD launched a trifecta of innovation: the Radeon RX 9060 XT, the Radeon AI PRO R9700, and the Ryzen Threadripper 9000 Series. Based on AMD’s RDNA 4 architecture, the new GPUs introduce 1440p gaming, ML-upscaled upscaling, and second-gen AI acceleration to workstations and desktops, intriguing both gaming and enterprise communities.

AMD’s Q1 earnings flexed financial muscle to match: Revenue: $7.44 billion (+36% YoY), EPS: 96 cents (beat expectations), buyback: $6 billion approved, taking total authorization to $10 billion.

Add to that a growing presence in hyperscaler contracts and strong analyst conviction, with Bank of America's Vivek Arya recently giving AMD a $130 price target, and you've got a comeback narrative investors can't ignore.

Nvidia: Still the King

While AMD arrived in Taipei with pricing and performance muscle, Nvidia slipped under the radar and reminded everyone who’s boss by inking a historic deal with Saudi Arabia’s AI branch, Humain. The deal stipulates that Nvidia will use 18,000 Blackwell chips to construct a Saudi supercomputer, part of a Vision 2030 master plan to establish Riyadh as a global AI hub.

xAI, Elon Musk’s AI initiative, indicated intent to initially deploy Nvidia GPUs “and some from AMD,” as Musk joked. Though that sounds more like “AMD in case of an emergency,” it’s a significant endorsement that the chipmaker is now viewed as a legitimate alternative in big-scale AI workloads.

Final Byte

With AMD aiming higher and Nvidia going global, ETFs like SMH, BOTZ, and SOXX aren't just passive plays, they’re strategic AI allocations in disguise. For investors looking to tap into the chip wars without rolling the dice on single names, these funds are battle-tested and portfolio-ready.

In the silicon arena, it’s no longer about who’s faster. It’s about who powers the future and who profits from it.

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