Own Both VOO and QQQM? You May Be Buying the Same Stocks Twice.

One big topic of conversation in the stock market lately is whether the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) has become too "top-heavy" and concentrated with the same major tech stocks. The fact is, many exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tend to hold some of the same stocks based on the fund's objectives and rules. But some ETFs are more "duplicative" than others.

Let's look at a few popular ETFs and see how much overlap there is among major tech names. You might want to avoid buying the same stocks twice.

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Top 10 stock holdings for 7 ETFs: VOO, VTI, QQQM, VGT, VUG, SCHD, DGRO

Data source: Vanguard, Invesco, Schwab, iShares. * As of Sept. 30, 2026.

As you can see from the table above, many of these stock ETFs are holding the same mix of stocks. The top 10 stock holdings for the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and the Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) are nearly identical, except for their 10th-place holdings, where one fund has Eli Lilly instead of JPMorgan Chase.

There's also a lot of overlap among the three tech ETFs in this table. One big difference is the Vanguard Information Technology ETF (VGT), which does not hold Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, or Tesla. (Interestingly, VGT has outperformed all the other funds in the past five years.)

Instead, VGT focuses on more traditionally defined "computer" or "electronics" companies, while some of those other tech names are in sectors that are not strictly "information technology." For example, Amazon is a consumer cyclical stock, even though most people might understandably think of it as a "tech company."

Some of the biggest diversification happens once you look at the dividend ETFs. The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) holds a mix of energy, healthcare, and consumer staples stocks, while the iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF (DGRO) holds some tech names that pay strong dividends, while also holding JPMorgan Chase, energy stocks, and healthcare stocks.

Which ETF should you buy to avoid overlapping stocks?

The artificial intelligence (AI) boom has driven up the market caps of some of the world's most valuable tech companies. If you're buying low-cost index funds, your investments have benefited from this surge in AI stocks. But if you're now getting worried that AI is a bubble and you want to diversify away from tech stocks, it's hard to find any place to hide in the S&P 500. Index funds like VOO and VTI are still top-heavy with tech mega-caps. Owning those ETFs means accepting that risk as a long-term investor.

But if you want to take action to diversify your portfolio and put some of your money to work in different parts of the economy that might be less affected by an AI bubble, buying dividend funds could be a good choice. The dividend funds SCHD and DGRO have underperformed the rest of these ETFs in the past five years. But if the markets turn against tech, or if the AI bubble leads to a stock market crash, some of those dividend stocks might drive stronger performance for dividend ETFs in the next few years.

JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Ben Gran has positions in Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends AbbVie, Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Amgen, Apple, Broadcom, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Eli Lilly, Home Depot, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Lam Research, Merck, Meta Platforms, Micron Technology, Microsoft, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, Qualcomm, Tesla, Texas Instruments, Vanguard Morningstar Growth ETF, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool recommends ConocoPhillips, Johnson & Johnson, Philip Morris International, UnitedHealth Group, and Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.