Global ETF Assets Hit Record $23T in May

Call ‘em Bruce Springsteen because they’re born to run. 

Exchange-traded funds surpassed $1 trillion in inflows globally at the end of May, a breakneck pace that pushed global assets to a record $23 trillion, according to data from ETFGI. Coming off a record-breaking 2025 for launches, inflows and assets under management, hitting the $1T milestone not even halfway through the year indicates that despite global uncertainty, the asset class isn’t slowing down. Much of that growth has come from a small number of massive funds, said Deborah Fuhr, managing partner and cofounder of ETFGI. Only about 1,600 funds have more than $2 billion in assets, but they account for about 85% of total assets. “We have a very small number of big ETFs, but big is generally, say, over $2 billion,” she said. “Being over a trillion is a huge milestone.”  

Heavyweight Champs

Shocking no one, the heavy hitters are still the low-cost index funds from the industry’s biggest names: 

• The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) leads the pack, with $58.8 billion in net flows so far this year, according to data from ETF.com. The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) isn’t far behind, at $55.7 billion. 
• The State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM) comes in third, with $43.5 billion in fund flows in 2026. 
• The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) and the SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPLG) round out the top five, with $31.7 billion and $29.5 billion, respectively.

Under the Big Top.  With so many new products being launched, investors’ ETF usage is changing. “The tent has expanded to a lot more than just long-only passive investing,” said James Seyffart, an ETF analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. “There’s a feeding frenzy for anything related to AI, semiconductors, space, you name it … as the market’s going up, we tend to see more money come into ETFs as a whole, but even when the market goes down, money still tends to come into the industry.”