As summer fades, a familiar specter haunts Wall Street: the "September Curse." For nearly a century, September has been the S&P 500's worst-performing month, with an average decline of 1.1% since 1928, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
This historical anomaly, rooted in past seasonal volatility and institutional portfolio adjustments, has often triggered heightened volatility and investor anxiety.
With major indices already suffering sharp sell-offs over the past couple of months, highlighted by NVIDIA’s NVDA record single-day loss dragging down broader equity performance, fears of a deeper correction might make many investors jittery, particularly this month.
However, avoiding market pullbacks risks missing out on one of the most powerful growth drivers in modern finance — artificial intelligence (AI).
So, in light of the September curse, investors are left with a critical question: Should one retreat from a lucrative long-term trend due to seasonal jitters?
The answer may lie in looking beyond individual stocks and toward AI-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
This is because while individual AI stocks can offer immense upside, they also carry significant execution risk, as seen in the volatile price swings of industry leaders. On the contrary, ETFs offer diversification, mitigating the impact of any single company's misstep while providing broad exposure to the AI industry’s undeniable growth.
Against this backdrop, it is crucial to understand the sheer scale of the AI industry's expansion, the prominent stocks flourishing within it and the overarching investment trends shaping this unstoppable force. Let’s take a closer look.
The AI Megatrend: Facts & Figures
The AI industry is not just growing; it is expanding rapidly, evolving from a niche technology sector into a primary driver of global economic transformation.
The numbers are staggering. According to Gartner, global AI spending reached $1.76 trillion in 2025, marking a 79% year-over-year increase. This figure is projected to surge to $2.59 trillion by the end of this year, registering a 47% year-over-year increase. This growth is not merely a forecast; it is already reshaping industries, from healthcare and finance to manufacturing and energy.
At the heart of this revolution are the companies building and powering the AI infrastructure. Industry giants like NVIDIA and Advanced Micro Devices AMD continue to be at the forefront, providing the critical semiconductor technology that fuels AI processing.
Broadcom AVGO also plays an essential role with its networking and connectivity solutions, while memory and storage leaders such as Micron Technology MU are indispensable for the data-intensive demands of AI workloads.
Foundational to this entire ecosystem is Taiwan Semiconductor TSM, the world's leading semiconductor foundry that manufactures chips for many of these key players. AI is entering a new phase, increasingly driven by inference, creating massive demand for computing power. This has fueled a boom in AI infrastructure spending, which now represents the largest portion of AI expenditure, accounting for 55% of global AI spending in 2026. Data centers, servers and networking hardware are critical components of this infrastructure.
The scale of investment is also evident in the financial markets, with the technology sector representing more than $1.14 trillion in assets across 262 ETFs, according to data compiled by ETF Database. Major cloud providers and tech giants are projected to pour a combined $650 billion into AI infrastructure capital expenditures in 2026 alone. This massive investment drive highlights why AI has become the foundational technology for the next era of economic growth.
Cautious Optimism: Why AI ETFs Are the Smart Play Now
Despite the monumental growth prospects offered by the industry, a shift in investor sentiment is brewing, particularly as we enter the historically volatile autumn months. Data from Vanda Research and Charles Schwab reveals that while retail investors have not abandoned the AI trade, they have become significantly more cautious and selective.
Against this backdrop, AI ETFs become a necessity, not just an option. They offer a diversified, cost-effective and lower-risk vehicle to capture the AI supercycle without the "all-or-nothing" risk of betting on a single company.
AI ETFs to Buy in September
Given the current landscape, for investors looking to navigate the September jitters and beyond, the following AI-focused ETFs offer robust exposure to the industry's growth opportunities:
iShares A.I. Innovation and Tech Active ETF BAI
This fund, with net assets worth $13.72 billion, offers exposure to 49 companies enabling, developing, and deploying today's most advanced AI technologies across the “AI tech stack,” which includes infrastructure, intelligence and apps & services. MU enjoys the first spot in this fund, holding 6.37% of its assets, while NVDA enjoys the second position, holding 5.34%. AVGO, AMD and TSM hold the third, fourth and fifth positions in this fund, respectively, with 4.84%, 4.75% and 4.56% weightage.
BAI has surged 30% year to date and charges 55 basis points (bps) in fees. It traded at a good volume of 1.86 million shares in the last trading session.
Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF AIQ
This fund, with net assets worth $10.01 billion, offers exposure to 88 companies that potentially stand to benefit from the further development and utilization of AI technology in their products and services, as well as in companies that provide hardware facilitating the use of AI for the analysis of big data. Palantir PLTR holds the first spot in this fund, with 4.04% weightage, while NVDA holds the ninth sport with 2.89% weightage.
AIQ has rallied 23.9% year to date and charges 68 bps in fees. It traded at a volume of 0.75 million shares in the last trading session.
Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF CHAT
It is an actively managed fund and the world’s first Generative AI ETF, with assets under management (AUM) of $1.80 billion, offering exposure to 52 companies involved in the investment theme of AI, generative artificial intelligence and related technologies. NVDA holds the first spot in this fund, with 7.26% weightage, while MU holds the fifth position with 3.33% weight.
CHAT has soared 44.6% year to date and charges 75 bps in fees. It traded at a volume of 0.19 million shares in the last trading session.
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NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): Free Stock Analysis Report
Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF (AIQ): ETF Research Reports
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD): Free Stock Analysis Report
Micron Technology, Inc. (MU): Free Stock Analysis Report
Broadcom Inc. (AVGO): Free Stock Analysis Report
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSM): Free Stock Analysis Report
Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).