VettaFi’s 2026 Midyear Outlook Symposium took place at the end of June and included insight from a wide array of asset managers and industry leaders. Topics ranged from the second-half outlook to the essential tools that investors and advisors need for their portfolios. One standout segment featured Amplify ETFs’ Vice President of Product Development and Management, Nathan Miller, and VettaFi’s Head of Research, Todd Rosenbluth. The duo discussed two major trends this year — energy and AI — and how Amplify has approached these themes with two particular ETFs.
Key Takeaways:
- Energy prices in relation to the U.S.-Iran war and A.I. have been two major themes this year.
- While both NDIV and BATT benefit from these market shifts, NDIV distinguishes itself by incorporating an income factor.
- NDIV also combines covered calls and dividends, offering a compelling mix of income and upside potential for investors.
Miller focused the discussion on NDIV and BATT, two major ETFs from Amplify focusing on energy and battery tech, respectively. He began with the Amplify Energy & Natural Resources Covered Call ETF (NDIV ) and revealed how it’s been operating in a year that’s been defined by the Iran war energy crisis.
“I think we can’t talk about energy without talking about the elephant in the room. The clear driver has been the conflict with Iran, right?” Miller said. “But as that conflict starts to wane, I would expect and have already seen prices start to come down.”
See more: What Rising Structural Inflation Means for Your Bond Portfolio
At the same time, he added that AI has also been a key driver. Taking hold of the back half of 2025, he said, the bottlenecks in AI have changed from semiconductors, to data centers, and now to reliable power for those data centers.
“I think that tailwind is going to continue for the foreseeable future longer term,” Miller noted. “And I think there’s a variety of ways to allocate within the energy space to be able to benefit from that AI trade without taking additional AI exposure in a portfolio.”
Income Enhancing Elements
Amid that energy push, he added, energy funds can also provide some income. Dividends and covered calls, the latter an increasingly popular category, can play a role therein. NDIV offers that covered call approach for a 59 basis point fee. The strategy uses monthly option premiums, tracking an index from dividend-paying names including MLPs from commodity-related industries. It combines dividend and covered call income.
“The growth in the covered call space over the last several years has been tremendous, but that’s largely been concentrated on benchmark type exposure,” Miller said. “But you can do covered calls and sell covered calls across a variety of different assets, including energy companies and generate a slightly different source of total return.”
See more: How Active ETFs Can Outperform for Tech, AI IPOs
At the same time, amid those energy shifts, battery tech is also appealing. The Amplify Lithium & Battery Technology ETF (BATT ) charges a 59 basis point fee to invest in its market cap-weighted index. Rising energy prices, Miller said, have driven increased interest in the electric vehicles that require batteries.
“That’s pushed a lot of people to consider a hybrid vehicle or an electric vehicle as an alternative when they’re going to replace their aging vehicle,” he said. “And the AI side is also a key component because getting reliable energy to the data centers continues to remain a bottleneck.”
Together, these ETFs could appeal to investors with both upside and income offered between the two of them. BATT has returned 11.4% YTD while NDIV has returned 26.2% YTD. NDIV has also provided an 11.52% distribution rate according to Amplify data. Looking ahead, these ETFs offer an intriguing option for investors looking to build a core-plus strategy.
For more news, information, and analysis, visit the Thematic Investing Content Hub.
VettaFi LLC (“VettaFi”) is the index provider for BATT for which it receives index licensing fees. However, BATT is not issued, sponsored, endorsed, or sold by VettaFi, and VettaFi has no obligation or liability in connection with the issuance, administration, marketing, or trading of BATT.
