The Vanguard Information Technology ETF, known by its ticker VGT, has risen 22% year to date and 50% over the past 12 months, giving investors a cleaner read on how far the tech rally has run. The fund has outpaced the Invesco QQQ this year and over the past year, as technology shares have stormed back with momentum heading into the summer.
That edge matters because VGT is built to be a pure technology stock ETF, tracking the MSCI US Investable Market Information Technology 25/50 Index rather than the broader mix inside the QQQ. The ETF currently holds about 316 tech stocks, with Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft as its three largest positions.
The numbers show the scale of the move. The Invesco QQQ is up about 17% year to date and roughly 39% over the past year, while the Nasdaq touched 26,700 on May 14. In the longer view, VGT has posted a 20.9% annualized return over five years and a 24.3% return over 10 years, compared with 17.6% and 21.2% for the QQQ. The S&P 500 has lagged both, with five-year and 10-year annualized returns of 12.7% and 13.8%.
The gap widens further over two decades. VGT has averaged a 15.9% annual return over the past 20 years, slightly ahead of the QQQ's 15.5% and well above the S&P 500's 9.2% annualized return. Those figures help explain why investors keep circling back to tech whenever the market starts rewarding growth again.
Still, the fund is not a simple bet on a handful of giants. Its structure makes it more diversified within the sector than many tech ETFs because it tracks large-, mid- and small-cap technology stocks while using screens that limit exposure to any one company. That helps spread the risk, but it also means the fund remains tied to a sector that can move fast in both directions.
For now, the story is straightforward: tech has regained the market's attention, and VGT has been one of the clearest ways to capture it. The next question is whether the recent surge can hold as investors decide how much more of the summer they want to spend chasing the same names that have already led the rebound.
