ETF providers accelerate product launches as U.S. issuers chase high-demand trades

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US ETF launches surge

Highlights

A record 1,084 new ETFs launched by mid-July 2026, approaching 2025's full-year record of 1,161, with a surge in leveraged and thematic products.
US-listed ETFs attracted over $1 trillion net inflows in H1 2026, with State Street forecasting $2.3 trillion for the year, surpassing 2025's $1.5 trillion.
Corgi Funds launched 188 ETFs since December and filed for 360 more, aiming to surpass BlackRock in listings, despite controlling less than $1 billion in assets.

Record launch pace reshapes ETF product mix

As reported by Financial Times, 1,084 new ETFs have been listed by mid-July, according to Morningstar data, already nearing the full-year record of 1,161 set in 2025 and standing above any previous annual total. The new products include a heavy share of leveraged funds tied to equity indices and individual stocks, reflecting a broad push by issuers to identify the next market theme capable of attracting rapid inflows.

Bryan Armour, director of passive strategies research for North America at Morningstar, says the current issuance wave resembles a "spaghetti cannon" approach, with providers launching large numbers of funds in hopes that a small subset gains traction. The strategy follows the rapid asset gathering seen in products such as the Roundhill Memory ETF and the iShares Bitcoin Trust, which both draw billions of dollars by offering exposure to highly popular themes.

Roundhill's chip-focused DRAM fund reaches $10 billion in assets in just 50 days after launch, helped by investor demand for companies linked to the AI investment boom. Morningstar data also show that almost a quarter of this year's launches are leveraged single-stock ETFs, up from 20 per cent in 2025 and 4 per cent in 2024, highlighting growing appetite for speculative vehicles despite concerns over long-term suitability.

Investor demand fuels competition across U.S. asset managers

Demand for ETFs in the U.S. continues to expand, supported by tax advantages over mutual funds, trading flexibility, lower fees and a wider range of strategies. State Street Investment Management says net inflows to U.S.-listed ETFs exceed $1 trillion in the first half of 2026 and forecasts full-year inflows of $2.3 trillion, above the $1.5 trillion recorded in 2025 and roughly four times the typical annual level seen in the early 2020s.

Some newer firms are pushing issuance particularly aggressively. Corgi Funds, a venture capital-backed start-up that begins launching products in December, has already brought 188 ETFs to market and has filed for 360 more, including thematic products and leveraged funds tied to Chinese internet, Taiwanese and Korean stocks. That leaves it on track to surpass BlackRock by number of U.S. ETF listings within months, although BlackRock still holds $4.5 trillion in U.S. ETF assets compared with less than $1 billion for Corgi.

Anthony Crinieri, a portfolio manager at Corgi, says the firm expects only a minority of launches to become major successes, with about 20 per cent of funds likely to gather 80 per cent of assets. Other active issuers this year include Leverage Shares, GraniteShares, Defiance ETFs and T-Rex, many focused on leveraged and inverse strategies, while analysts say a growing share of new launches are copycat thematic, active or derivatives-based funds rather than the broad-market trackers that historically dominate the industry.

Our earlier report on Amkor’s $1.5 billion multi-year agreement with Nvidia covered the chipmaker’s push to expand advanced semiconductor packaging and testing capacity in the U.S., including operations in Arizona, as AI infrastructure demand accelerates. We also noted the plan to co-develop packaging technologies that integrate multiple chips into single packages, alongside a sharp positive market reaction to the deal.

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