Key Morningstar Metrics for iShares AI Innovation Active ETF IART
- : Sector Equity TechnologyMorningstar Category
- : SilverMorningstar Medalist Rating
- : N/AMorningstar Rating
- Ongoing Charge: N/A
A niche strategy benefiting from experienced leadership. iShares AI Innovation and Tech Active ETF benefits from a veteran leader well-suited to handle this niche strategy.
This recently launched active exchange-traded fund benefits from an expert leader. Lead manager Tony Kim has more than 30 years of experience analyzing technology firms and has developed his own system to organize and monitor the universe. This framework helps Kim standardize firms across industries for easy comparisons. He has assembled a team of seven, including one comanager and a data scientist; each team member is responsible for understanding the entire technology sector.
This strategy focuses only on companies playing a role in the rise of artificial intelligence. Kim and his team split the AI stack into three buckets: infrastructure, intelligence, and apps and services. He takes an all-cap, global approach to finding AI companies. Infrastructure plays are parsed into power players like Hitachi, computing like Nvidia, and cloud infrastructure like Microsoft. Intelligence focuses on companies with data or model advantages like Meta Platforms or Thomson Reuters. Within apps and services, the team likes companies focused on security, like Cloudflare, and those providing advanced tools like Twilio.
The result is a focused, high-growth portfolio, making it vulnerable to increased risk and lumpy returns. Investors should expect this fund to thrive when the market embraces the AI theme and riskier assets and struggle in more defensive markets.
This ETF launched in late October 2024, so it doesn’t have much of a track record. Since its launch through August 2025, its 28.6% cumulative gain outpaced most of the competition. It handily outpaced the Russell 3000 Growth’s 19.2%, the technology Morningstar Category norm’s 22.7%, and the Morningstar Global Artificial Intelligence Select Index’s 28.0% gain. Yet, it’s been volatile. During the span, its 32.9% standard deviation, a measure of volatility, was much higher than the Russell 3000 Growth’s 22.5%, the category’s 25.1%, and the Morningstar AI index’s 30.5%. During 2025’s first-quarter market drop, it lost 32%, which was on par with the Morningstar AI index. In the ensuing April rally through August, the ETF gained 62.5%, besting all comps, thanks to bets in Astera Labs, SoftBank, and Cloudflare.
Kim’s expertise makes this offering a decent option for investors seeking AI exposure.
iShares AI Innovation Active ETF: Performance Highlights
Performance is evaluated in US dollar, measured to the end of April 2026.
Short-Term Performance
Over the past 12 months, iShares AI Innovation Active ETF $ Acc share class returned 92.9%, outperforming its category index, the Morningstar Gbl Tech NR USD Index (53.8%), and its Morningstar category peers (53.9%).
