Vanguard’s S&P 500 ETF has overtaken State Street Global Advisors’ offering as the world’s biggest ETF.
The Vanguard 500 ETF (VOO ) is the world’s largest ETF by assets under management as of February 18, surpassing the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY ). VOO has $632 billion in assets as of February 18 according to Bloomberg data while SPY has $630 billion.
“This is a tremendous milestone for Vanguard, the ETF industry, and is a sign of growing retail adoption. For many investors, their first instinct is to turn to the largest ETF,” Todd Rosenbluth, VettaFi head of research, said.
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This is a key milestone for the industry as SPY has long been credited with being both the largest and first U.S. ETF. SPY was the first U.S.-listed ETF when it launched 32 years ago, giving the fund a significant first-mover advantage.
VOO was launched in 2010, nearly 17 years after SPY. However, Vanguard’s S&P 500 has been gaining market share in recent years. VOO set a record in 2024 for net inflows for a single ETF with $116 billion.
VOO has a net expense ratio of 0.03%, which is less than SPY’s 0.0945% fee. This is a significant differentiator between the funds as each ETF provides access to the same index, the S&P 500.
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The third-biggest U.S. ETF by assets is the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV ) with $609 billion as of February 18, according to Bloomberg data. Like VOO, IVV charges just 0.03%. IVV also had a strong showing in 2024, bringing in $87 billion in net flows compared to VOO’s $116 billion. Notably, while VOO is the new ETF heavyweight, IVV has also gained on SPY in the past year.
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