ETF – Our Story Insight

Goldman Sachs acquires ETF firm Innovator Capital Management for $2 billion

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 09:01:00 +0000

David Solomon, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Goldmans Sachs on Monday said it agreed to buy Innovator Capital Management, a provider of defined-outcome ETFs, for about $2 billion in its latest deal to bolster the firm’s asset management division.

Goldman said the acquisition, expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, will boost its ETF offerings in a fast-growing corner of the investing world.

Defined-outcome ETFs use contracts including options to buffer downside risks or offer targeted gains over set time periods. Innovator had $28 billion of assets under supervision across 159 ETFs as of Sept. 30.

“Active ETFs are dynamic, transformative, and one of the fastest-growing segments in today’s public investment landscape,” Goldman CEO David Solomon said in a news release announcing the deal. “By acquiring Innovator, Goldman Sachs will expand access to modern, world-class investment products.”

Goldman Sachs, which has made asset and wealth management a priority since pivoting away from a consumer banking push, has made a series of deals in the sector this year. In September, Goldman said it would invest $1 billion in T. Rowe Price, and the following month, the bank said it acquired venture capital investor Industry Ventures to bolster its alternative investments platform.

Goldman said Monday once the deal closes, Innovator’s 60-plus employees will join the bank’s asset management division.

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Two ETF CEOs see a key market shift

admin — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 23:28:06 +0000

A key rotation away from artificial intelligence stocks may be underway in the market.

According to Astoria Portfolio Advisors’ John Davi, a broader range of stocks are getting a “green light” because liquidity is returning to the system.

“The Fed cut rates four times last year. They cut rates twice already. They’re going to go again whether its December [or] January,” the firm’s CEO and chief investment officer told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “Historically whenever the Fed cuts interest rates, usually that’s a turn of a new cycle. Market leadership does tend to change quietly.”

He lists the latest performance in areas ranging from emerging markets to industrials. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF, which tracks the group, is up 17% over the past six months as of Wednesday’s close. The Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund is up 9% over the same period.

“I think they can be a good offset to what’s an expensive large cap tech position, which dominates most portfolios,” he added. “We’re living in a structurally higher inflation world. The Fed is cutting rates like, why do you want to take so much risk in just seven stocks?” and

Davi prefers a global balanced approach to investing versus an overweight position in the Magnificent 7 — which is comprised of Apple, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, Microsoft, Tesla and Alphabet, which has been trading around all-time highs. The Mag 7 makes up about a third of the S&P 500.

Sophia Massie, CEO of ETF-issuer LionShares, is also wary of going all-in on the AI trade.

“I think analysts have an idea of how much value AI will add to our economy. I don’t think we really understand how that’s going to play out between different companies yet,” Massie said in the same interview. “So, I have this sense that right now, we’re pricing in this probability that… one company may be the one that dominates, dominates AI and ends up being a big player in the future.”

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AI-electric appeal for underperforming infrastructure: ETF experts

admin — Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:52:35 +0000

Industrial and infrastructure stocks may soon share the spotlight with the artificial intelligence trade.

According to ETF Action’s Mike Atkins, there’s a bullish setup taking shape due to both policy and consumer trends. His prediction comes during a volatile month for Big Tech and AI stocks.

“You’re seeing kind of the old-school infrastructure, industrial products that have not done as well over the years,” the firm’s founding partner told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “But there’s a big drive… kind of away from globalization into this reshoring concept, and I think that has legs.”

Global X CEO Ryan O’Connor is also optimistic because the groups support the AI boom. His firm runs the Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE), which tracks companies involved in construction and industrial projects.

“Infrastructure is something that’s near and dear to our heart based off of PAVE, which is our largest ETF in the market,” said O’Connor in the same interview. “We think some of these reshoring efforts that you can get through some of these infrastructure places are an interesting one.”

The Global X’s infrastructure exchange-traded fund is up 16% so far this year, while the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH), which includes AI bellwethers Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor and Broadcom, is up 42%, as of Friday’s close.

Both ETFs are lower so far this month — but Global X’s infrastructure ETF is performing better. Its top holdings, according to the firm’s website, are Howmet Aerospace, Quanta Services and Parker Hannifin.

Supporting the AI boom

He also sees electrification as a positive driver.

“All of the things that are going to be required for us to continue to support this AI boom, the electrification of the U.S. economy, is certainly one of them,” he said, noting the firm’s U.S. Electrification ETF (ZAP) gives investors exposure to them. The ETF is up almost 24% so far this year.

The Global X U.S. Electrification ETF is also performing a few percentage points better than the VanEck Semiconductor ETF for the month.

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BlackRock’s ETF chief says 75% of its bitcoin buyers are crypto fans new to Wall Street

admin — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 22:05:35 +0000

Marquee at the main entrance to BlackRock headquarters building in Manhattan.

Erik Mcgregor | Lightrocket | Getty Images

SALT LAKE CITY — A year ago, Samara Cohen believed there was so much pent-up demand for bitcoin that she and her team at BlackRock launched one of the first-ever spot bitcoin exchange-traded products in the U.S. Now investors are flocking in, and a lot of them are crypto enthusiasts who are new to Wall Street.

Cohen, who heads up the asset manager’s exchange-traded funds and index investments as chief investment officer, told CNBC that BlackRock now sees the demand was for a better way to access bitcoin. “It was for the ETF wrapper,” she told CNBC on stage at the Permissionless Conference in Utah.

The total market cap of all eleven spot bitcoin ETFs now tops $63 billion, with total flows of nearly $20 billion. In the last five trading days alone, spot bitcoin ETFs have seen net inflows of more than $2.1 billion, with BlackRock accounting for half of those sales.

The spike in trading volume comes as bitcoin hit its highest level since July this week, trading above $68,300. Bitcoin ended the third quarter up around 140% from the same quarter a year ago, outpacing the S&P 500, as these spot token funds and the crypto market cap move higher in lock-step. Crypto-aligned stock Coinbase closed up about 24% this week, its best week since February.

Cohen told CNBC that part of the strategy for attracting customers to its funds was teaching crypto investors about the benefits of exchange-traded products (ETPs).

13F filings, which offer quarterly reads on equity positions taken by large investors, show that 80% of the buyers of these new spot bitcoin products in the U.S. are direct investors. Of the 80% of direct investors, Cohen told CNBC that 75% had never before owned an iShare, one of the best-known and largest ETF providers on the planet.

“So we went into this journey with the expectation that we needed to educate ETF investors on crypto and on bitcoin specifically,” said Cohen. “As it turns out, we have done a lot of education of crypto investors on the benefits of the ETP wrapper.”

Before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission green-lit spot bitcoin funds in January, investors had a few ways to buy and custody cryptocurrencies. A centralized exchange like Coinbase was among the most user-friendly options for U.S investors. But the blockbuster debut of bitcoin ETPs has laid bare to Cohen and others across Wall Street, that crypto exchanges weren’t giving digital asset investors everything they needed.

It helps that the U.S. is a huge market for digital assets. New data from Chainalysis shows that North America remains the biggest crypto market globally, accounting for nearly 23% of all crypto trading volume. The blockchain analytics platform estimates that between July 2023 and July 2024, there was $1.3 trillion in on-chain value received.

Venture firm a16z found in its recently released State of Crypto report that more than 40 million Americans hold crypto.

So far, adoption has mostly been through wealth management clients asking advisors to add new spot crypto products to their portfolio.

In August, Morgan Stanley was the first big bank to allow its 15,000 financial advisors to pitch bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and Fidelity to clients with a net worth over $1.5 million. Other firms are still performing in-house due diligence before allowing their armies of FAs to start actively pitching the funds.

“Wealth manager allocators have not been allocating,” VanEck CEO Jan van Eck told CNBC in Utah. “I mean, they’re barely even warming up.”

Van Eck drew parallels to the European market, where the company has 12 token-based products trading in Europe.

“It’s exactly what we see in Europe,” he said. “Very few private banks have really approved investment in bitcoin or ethereum or anything else in a major way.” Van Eck said his company has about $2 billion in its European crypto ETPs, and that a lot of the volume is from individual investors.

Wall Street needs rules from lawmakers on Capitol Hill before it gets more comfortable with crypto.

ETFs create transparency

Cohen thinks that in a lot of ways, ETFs and blockchain technology are solving for similar things.

“ETFs have been a decentralizing force in TradFi markets that have brought a lot more access and transparency, and importantly, really accelerated in growth during the post crisis 2008, 2009 period,” said Cohen, referring to traditional finance markets.

“I find it incredibly meaningful to look at the fact that the bitcoin whitepaper was published on October 31, 2008, and then you have the G20 leaders from around the world meeting to discuss the aftermath of the financial crisis and how do you create more transparency through public reporting,” Cohen continued.

BlackRock took on less risk by using counterparty clearing and multilateral trading. In TradFi markets, those moves created huge tailwinds for ETFs.

“Then at the same time, DeFi is becoming a reality over the intervening 15 years,” she said.

“Was this a win for Bitcoin? Was this a win for ETPs? To me, the answer is: It’s a win for investors, to the extent we can effectively marry these ecosystems which are solving for the same goals.”

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