Why This AI ETF's Top Holdings Could Deliver a 300% return by 2030

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the biggest thing in both technology and investing right now. And though some people are worried about an AI bubble, the Motley Fool's 2026 AI Investor Outlook report suggests that the AI bull market is set to continue for the foreseeable future. Among the AI sector investors who responded to that survey, 9 out of 10 plan to maintain or increase their holdings in AI stocks this year.

With that in mind, if you're looking for an investment strategy that gets you broad exposure to the AI industry, you should take a look at AI-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Image source: Getty Images.

And right now, the Global X Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETF (NASDAQ: AIQ) in particular is looking like a solid bet. According to Global X, the AI industry is set to be worth $826.7 billion by the end of the decade.

The ETF aims to invest in companies set to benefit from the development and adoption of AI technology through both hardware and software. It tracks the Indxx Artificial Intelligence & Big Data Index.

At present, the fund has net assets of $7.75 billion and has a total expense ratio of 0.68%. And, over the past three years, the fund has an average annualized return of 36.4%.

If it kept growing at the same pace, simply parking $10,000 in this ETF and letting it sit for five years (until 2030) would give you a position worth about $46,000 -- a 360% return. Let it sit for 10 years at that rate, and you'd have a stake worth about $216,000.

Of course, that's assuming that its annualized rate of return doesn't change, and it certainly is likely to. Past performance is no indication of future success. Yet AI is a growth market, and this ETF gives you access to the cream-of-the-crop companies within it.

So, let's take a look at its top three holdings, which could potentially help deliver you a $1 million slice of a multibillion-dollar market.

Stocks, from A to Z

Up first is Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), which makes up 4.4% of the ETF's holdings. Google's parent company is emerging as a front-runner in the AI race, and in 2025, it outperformed all its "Magnificent Seven" peers with a return of 65%.

Its self-driving car subsidiary, Waymo, is the leader in the autonomous taxi space. Though it's still in a fairly early stage of its rollout, it has already served more than 10 million rides to paying customers in a half a dozen metro areas across the U.S. It plans to add more than 20 additional cities this year, including London and Tokyo.

Factor in the successes of Google Cloud and its Gemini AI program, which is eating into OpenAI's market share remarkably quickly, and it's no wonder that in Q3 2025, Alphabet's revenue rose 16% year over year to $102 billion while its diluted earnings per share (EPS) surged 35%.

Alphabet also maintains a net income margin of 32% and has enough cash on its books to pay off all of its debt twice over.

I'm a Seoul man

Though it's probably best known for its smartphones and other electronic appliances, South Korea's Samsung (OTC: SSNL.F) is also a major player in the chip foundry market. It holds 7% market share, behind only Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. It's the Global X ETF's biggest holding, with about 5% of the fund.

The company has already been delivering solid performances, enjoying a year-over-year compound annual growth rate of 4.66% over the past 10 years and a net income margin of 10.31%, but Samsung projected it would see its Q4 2025 operating profit jump by a factor of three compared to Q4 2024, driven primarily by AI and its demand for memory chips in particular.

In an interview with NPR late last year, TrendForce senior research vice president Avril Wu said that his organization's data showed demand for random access memory (RAM) chips exceeding supply by 10%, and noted that prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) were up 50% over the previous quarter.

If Samsung can help fill the gap between supply and demand for memory chips, it should have no problem hitting its projections.

Down but not out

Despite a year of declining sales, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) was the third-best performer in the Magnificent Seven in 2025, behind Alphabet and Nvidia, returning 20%.

And that's because Tesla has a sort of intangible edge in CEO Elon Musk, who is committed to seeing his electric cars become capable of fully autonomous driving, and bringing other ambitious projects, such as the company's AI-driven Optimus robots, to fruition.

Love him or hate him, you can't deny that betting against Musk over the long term has so far been a losing endeavor. His companies have a track record of remarkable technological feats. For example, one of his other companies, SpaceX, has managed to perform controlled vertical landings of the booster stages of its rockets, allowing them to be reused repeatedly.

It seems that even if Tesla had a rough year, the market remains bullish on the man leading it, and that makes it worth a look.

Right now, Tesla makes up about 3.4% of the Global X AI and Technology ETF.

All for one and one for all

If you're an investor on a budget or don't feel overly confident in your ability to pick market-beating stocks -- a task that even Wall Street pros struggle to succeed at -- ETFs are a great way to gain exposure to a wide swath of the players in a given industry or market in one easy-to-purchase asset.

So if you want a set-it-and-forget-it AI investment, the Global X Artificial Intelligence and Technology ETF is worth a look.

James Hires has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.