Cybersecurity ETFs Are Rallying While AI Stocks Cool Off

Cybersecurity stocks rallied in Q2 2026 after prior stagnation, driven by AI partnerships, rising cloud attack opportunities, and improved industry earnings. WisdomTree Cybersecurity Fund, Amplify Cybersecurity ETF, and Global X Cybersecurity ETF each posted strong year-to-date returns of 29% to 35%, outpacing the broader market. The three ETFs differ in expense ratios, assets under management, trading volume, and holdings concentration, offering investors varied ways to access cybersecurity growth.

Many top cybersecurity firms experienced noteworthy rallies throughout Q2 2026, a welcome shift after a period of stagnation for much of the last year up until that time. Companies may be navigating AI upheaval more successfully—Anthropic's Project Glasswing appears to be a model for how traditional cybersecurity companies can partner with AI providers in a mutually beneficial way. On top of this, earnings across the industry have picked up, the result of increased opportunities for attacks on cloud operations and other market-wide vulnerabilities. The takeaway for many investors is that the second half of 2026 could be an opportunity for cybersecurity companies to further distinguish themselves, with various sub-sectors proving ripe for growth and share prices across the sector showing resilience even while a broader AI sell-off has dampened results elsewhere. Cybersecurity exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can help to capture this momentum.

With returns of more than 35% year to date (YTD), the WisdomTree Cybersecurity Fund NASDAQ: WCBR is an information technology fund with a specific focus on companies involved in the cybersecurity space. Its basket is fairly narrow, as the fund holds only 33 positions. However, even the largest allocation—to industry leader CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. NASDAQ: CRWD —is only about 7.7%. This makes the basket a way to gain access to a moderately evenly-weighted collection of the biggest and most successful global cybersecurity companies trading today. WCBR is not the largest cybersecurity ETF by any means. Indeed, its $111 million in managed assets and similarly modest trading volume suggest that many investors overlook this fund. Still, with an expense ratio of 0.45%, this is actually one of the most modestly priced funds in this thematic area. On top of that, its performance is on par with, or even better than, that of other funds with higher annual fees.

With more than 11 years of trading history, the Amplify Cybersecurity ETF NYSEARCA: HACK is the oldest cybersecurity-focused fund currently available to domestic investors. As a sign of this fund's longevity, it has one of the largest asset bases of any ETF in a similar theme, although at $2.8 billion, its assets under management remain quite modest compared to many larger funds in the broader ETF universe. This ETF also has an average trading volume about five times that of WCBR, which may increase its appeal to investors looking for stability and liquidity. In other respects, though, HACK is more difficult to distinguish from its newer, smaller peer. For one thing, it has a similarly sized portfolio that has 25 distinct holdings f...