#分享美股交易赢英伟达股票 Vanguard's ETF assets under management first surpass one trillion dollars, with passive fund influence continuing to expand

The Financial Times reports that Vanguard's ETF tracking the S&P 500 index (ticker VOO) has taken the lead in surpassing $1 trillion in assets, becoming the first ETF worldwide to reach this level. Its rapid growth also reflects a large amount of passive funds waiting to buy into major IPOs expected to debut this year, such as SpaceX and AI company Anthropic.
The fund crossed the $1 trillion mark on Wednesday, growing fourfold since 2022, and in the process, overtaking State Street's similar product SPY, benefiting from a sustained market rally and strong investor demand for AI stocks.
Its rise reflects the prosperity of passive investing over the past decade: ultra-low fees, substantial returns from tracking U.S. blue-chip indices, and underperformance of many actively managed funds.
Data shows that by the end of April, global ETF assets reached $21.9 trillion, more than tripling the $6.4 trillion at the beginning of 2020.
Fees are a key variable—both VOO and BlackRock's IVV, with $857 billion in assets, have an annual fee of only 0.03%, while SPY, with $788 billion, has a fee of 0.0945%. VOO is expected to surpass SPY by February 2025.
More attention is being paid to the potential demand for passive funds in new stocks: three major IPOs are expected this year, with SpaceX planning to raise about $10k at a valuation of approximately $1.75 trillion, Anthropic's IPO valuation may exceed $1 trillion, and OpenAI, recently valued at about $852 billion, is also preparing to file for an IPO.
Since index-tracking funds need to automatically buy index components based on their weights, if these companies are quickly included in major indices after going public, it could generate significant rule-based buying demand.
Meanwhile, index providers are pushing for "fast inclusion" rules: last week, S&P-related index companies concluded a consultation that, if approved, would shorten the waiting period for new stocks to enter the S&P 500 from 12 months to 6 months, potentially triggering billions of dollars in buying. VOO surpassing $1 trillion demonstrates that passive investing has become a major force influencing the U.S. capital markets.
Low-fee ETFs lower the barrier for investors to allocate to U.S. stocks but also further concentrate funds into major indices and leading components. If large AI and tech companies go public and are included in core indices in the future, the rules for passive fund allocation may further reinforce the market weight of big tech firms, deepening market reliance on index fund flows. $VOO