Exceptional Q4 earnings and an impressive end to 2025 for tech leader NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) may indicate that the AI phenomenon isn't slowing down any time soon. Despite fears of a bubble, the AI industry is continuing its rapid expansion to a degree that makes it difficult for just about any sector or industry to ignore. For investors, there may still be time to enter positions in AI companies in order to benefit from this sustained growth, despite the fact that many names in the AI space have already staged notable rallies in recent months.
Still, the AI world is rapidly changing, and identifying individual publicly traded companies to constitute a broader bet on the industry may be difficult, especially for investors not tracking updates closely. Fortunately, a number of straightforward AI-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) provide various strategies related to the industry with a single, low-effort investment. Not all of these funds are the same, however, and a handful of newer entrants to the AI ETF landscape may stand out.
AI Infrastructure Investments at a Fairly Reasonable Cost
An AI-centered ETF may seem like a surprise coming from Tortoise Capital, which is known for its focus on energy investments. However, the Tortoise AI Infrastructure ETF (NYSE: TCAI) aims to expose investors to the infrastructure vital to the AI space, making it an energy-adjacent investment. TCAI's active management strategy targets companies in three categories related to AI: energy, data centers, and technology.
In this way, TCAI offers exposure to three different—but equally important—components of the AI industry. Energy positions in the fund include companies providing electrical power, such as Constellation Energy (NASDAQ: CEG). Data center firms like Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE: VRT) make up the second component, with firms dedicated to developing infrastructure technology comprising the third. All told, TCAI holds roughly four dozen names.
Though only launched in August 2025, TCAI has impressed with returns of about 27% year-to-date (YTD). The fund is also fairly modestly priced for one with active management, with an expense ratio of 0.65%. As a newer ETF, TCAI remains small in size—it has assets under management (AUM) of $79 million and a one-month average trading volume of under 38,000.
An Alternative to TCAI With a Higher Asset Base and Trading Volume
The Defiance AI & Power Infrastructure ETF (NASDAQ: AIPO) offers another perspective on AI infrastructure. Tracking an index of companies in the AI hardware, data centers, and power infrastructure industries, AIPO will also benefit from a growing footprint in the support network vital to AI.
Naturally, AIPO has some overlap in terms of portfolio positions as compared to TCAI. However, the fund offers a broader array of companies and has a special focus on utilities and construction names across its roughly 60 holdings. Still, despite a wider portfolio, AIPO is more heavily concentrated in a handful of names, and just four companies constitute about a third of the total invested asset base.
AIPO has traded since July 2025, and in that time has built up nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in AUM. It also trades much more actively than TCAI, with a one-month average volume of about 340,000. YTD it has not quite matched TCAI's performance, although it has still dramatically outperformed the broader market with returns of more than 21% since the start of the year. TCAI's expense ratio of 0.69% is fairly comparable to AIPO as well, meaning investors have at least two strong ETF options for exposure to AI infrastructure.
A Comprehensive Bet on Humanoid Robots
Perhaps not focusing on AI in the same way many investors think of the technology, the KraneShares Global Humanoid and Embodied Intelligence ETF (NASDAQ: KOID) targets companies involved in designing, building, and otherwise making possible products with "embodied intelligence," including humanoid robots and similar offerings. This space exists at the intersection of AI, advanced materials, and machine learning, and it has the potential to benefit a host of industries and sectors. It may even reach $5 trillion in annual revenue by 2050, according to Morgan Stanley analysts.
For KOID investors, this means that the fund focuses on a variety of companies involved in robotics of this kind, from semiconductor makers to actuation and mechanical systems to sensing hardware and even manufacturers. As such, it is not a pure-play AI investment, but nonetheless one that is very closely tied to AI as it exists today.
KOID has an expense ratio of 0.69%, matching AIPO above, and has returned more than 15% YTD. Based on its first and only dividend payment so far, KOID also provides a modest dividend yield of 0.87%.
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The article "3 Straightforward ETF Plays to Build AI Exposure Into a Portfolio" first appeared on MarketBeat.
