ETF Giants Competer for NDX:Similar Funds Monitor Impact for Investors
COMPANIES AND MARKETS
By FactSet Insight | April 23, 2026
Competition within the U.S. ETF industry has reached a fever pitch. On April 6, 2026, Nasdaq announced a decision to offer Nasdaq-100 Index licensing “to a new select set of partners for U.S. ETF products” that ends the exclusivity Invesco has enjoyed for decades.
Shortly afterwards, industry giants BlackRock and State Street each filed for an ETF to track the index. That move is a direct challenge to the dominance of the iconic Invesco QQQ Trust Series, better known by its ticker $Invesco QQQ(QQQ)$ .
Launched in 1999 amid Y2K concerns, $Invesco QQQ(QQQ)$ played a major role in expanding investor access to innovative technology stocks. The index focuses exclusively on stocks listed on Nasdaq markets, directing the investible universe towards high-growth technology companies and excluding companies in the financial sector. Its weighting requirements and multi-tiered adjustment process result in heavy allocations to large-cap information technology, consumer discretionary, and health care sectors, while limiting exposure to energy and real estate.
The approach places the index in its own category, making true competition nonexistent. Invesco’s exclusive license protected one of the oldest, largest, and most widely traded ETFs in the U.S., with close to $400 billion in assets.
In December of 2025, Invesco reorganized $Invesco QQQ(QQQ)$ , changing its legal structure to provide greater flexibility to manage the portfolio, enhance transparency, and reduce expenses—a timely move as competition heats up.
At FactSet we closely monitor ETF competition through our Similar Funds Tool. We surface and analyze similar funds for all ETFs and mutual funds globally. We sort the global fund universe based on market availability and fund type.
Funds are then grouped by market segment. Priority goes to funds tracking identical indexes, then to funds sharing an investment strategy or strategy group. Ties are broken by AUM: high-asset ETFs rise to the top.
Currently, $Invesco QQQ(QQQ)$ ’s Similar Funds have two things in common:
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Their U.S. Large Cap Equity segment
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Their strategy, which we call Exchange-Specific since the indexes underlying these funds select from a universe of NASDAQ-listed securities.
Invesco’s QQQM, which also tracks the NASDAQ 100 index, tops the Similar Funds list, followed by other ETFs that employ an exchange-specific strategy: equal weighting the same 100 stocks ( $Direxion NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index Shares(QQQE)$ ), holding the tranche below the top 100 ( $Invesco NASDAQ Next Gen 100 ETF(QQQJ)$ ), parsing the 100 to a smaller universe, focusing on the mega caps within the 100 ( $iShares Nasdaq Top 30 Stocks ETF(QTOP)$ ), or looking outside the NASDAQ 100’s tech core ( $First Trust NASDAQ-100 Ex-Technology Sector Index Fund(QQXT)$ ).
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This improvement to the competitive landscape will be reflected in our Similar Funds Tool. The new BlackRock and State Street funds will replace QTOP and QQXT, even if they start out at a low asset level, because they will track the same index as QQQ and $Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF(QQQM)$ . QQQ’s Similar Funds will look more like SPY’s.
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A high-level overview of the current NASDAQ 100 ETFs suggests the battle for investor assets will be intense based on asset levels, liquidity, and cost.
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What does this mean for the ETF industry? The gloves are off. In the shifting landscape, no product is safe from being poached. Issuers must ramp up efforts to improve their lineups and maintain market share.
The recent BlackRock and State Street filings are not just a challenge—they signal a fundamental shift in industry dynamics. ETF providers are increasingly willing to go head-to-head, even against entrenched products.
Growth and innovation in the ETF industry will continue. Now more than ever, the best products must continually prove their worth. Investors stand to benefit from potentially lower costs, improved efficiency, more liquidity, and increased choice.
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