As of . Rebuilt every trading night.
The innovation ETFs that returned most
Funds sold on one theme can hold different companies, so a year apart at the top and the bottom of this list is a difference in what they own rather than in the theme.
| # | Ticker | Fund | Total return, 1Y | vs the S&P 500 | Weight in S&P 500 companies | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LFSC | F/m Emerald Life Sciences Innovation ETF | +53.0% | +36.5 pts | 0.0% | 0.54% |
| 2 | CARZ | First Trust S-Network Future Vehicles & | +50.4% | +33.9 pts | 51.5% | 0.70% |
| 3 | LENS | Sarmaya Thematic ETF | +46.4% | +29.8 pts | 21.7% | 0.79% |
| 4 | GTEK | Goldman Sachs Future Tech Leaders Equity | +43.6% | +27.1 pts | 33.5% | 0.75% |
| 5 | HTEC | ROBO Global(R) Healthcare Technology and | +37.8% | +21.3 pts | 31.8% | 0.68% |
| 6 | FDTX | Fidelity Disruptive Technology ETF | +37.2% | +20.7 pts | 71.1% | 0.50% |
| 7 | BULD | Pacer BlueStar Engineering the Future ET | +37.2% | +20.6 pts | 35.8% | 0.49% |
| 8 | FITE | State Street(R) SPDR(R) S&P Kensho Futur | +30.7% | +14.1 pts | 27.1% | 0.45% |
| 9 | FMED | Fidelity Disruptive Medicine ETF | +28.3% | +11.7 pts | 25.4% | 0.50% |
| 10 | XT | iShares Future Exponential Technologies | +24.4% | +7.8 pts | 64.5% | 0.46% |
| 11 | QQQJ | Invesco NASDAQ Next Gen 100 ETF | +22.4% | +5.8 pts | 46.2% | 0.15% |
| 12 | AOTG | AOT Growth and Innovation ETF | +22.3% | +5.8 pts | 77.4% | 0.75% |
| 13 | INVN | Alger Russell Innovation ETF | +20.7% | +4.2 pts | 32.5% | 0.55% |
| 14 | ILDR | First Trust Innovation Leaders ETF | +19.9% | +3.3 pts | 65.8% | 0.75% |
| 15 | TEKY | Lazard Next Gen Technologies ETF | +16.8% | +0.2 pts | 51.5% | 0.50% |
Method
The 27 of 30 ETFs in the broad innovation and megatrends theme with a full year of trading, highest first, each over the same year to Sep 18, 2026 with distributions reinvested. Across the funds listed here the one year total return runs from 16.8% to 53.0%. A year is a year. It says what happened and nothing about what happens next. The ranking is the published field sorted, nothing else: no scoring, no weighting and no view on any fund. Every fund ETFIQ covers in this category is eligible, including funds that have closed, because leaving them out would flatter the category.
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Where these figures came from
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A ranking is not a recommendation and no order on this site is an opinion. ETFIQ is an independent publisher, not an adviser. Standards and sources
Cite this page. ETFIQ, The innovation ETFs that returned most, ranked by total return with distributions reinvested, data as of Sep 18, 2026. https://etfiq.com/rankings/themes-best-year-innovation Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.