Robotics ETF Performance Gap 2026: Why Returns Range From 14% to 58%

With 2026 year-to-date returns ranging from roughly 14% to nearly 60% across major funds, new analytics help investors unmask the holdings driving the divergence

Brookfield, WI — September 7, 2026 — The Robotic Life today expanded its Robotics ETF Tracker. The platform tracks the business of humanoid robotics. The upgraded tool arrives as capital pours into physical AI, driving double-digit gains across robotics-branded funds while exposing dramatic divergence in their underlying strategies.

While robotics and physical AI have emerged as primary market drivers this year, performance among prominent funds reveals that no two “robotics” portfolios are built alike. Year-to-date returns vary widely based on how funds balance legacy industrial automation against true physical AI and compute providers.

Robotics ETF Performance in 2026

Several ETFs tracked by The Robotic Life have delivered double-digit gains in 2026. Based on year-to-date total returns as reported by Google Finance through the September 4 market close:

The iShares Future AI & Tech ETF (ARTY) gained 58.14%.
The VanEck Robotics ETF (IBOT) gained 23.63%.
The ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index ETF (ROBO) gained 16.25%.
The KraneShares Global Humanoid Robotics and Physical AI Index ETF (KOID) gained 14.36%.
The First Trust Nasdaq Artificial Intelligence and Robotics ETF (ROBT) gained 13.64%.

Why Robotics ETF Returns Differ

The wide range of results also illustrates an important distinction within the category. ARTY’s market-leading return primarily reflects its exposure to AI infrastructure and semiconductor companies, while KOID is more specifically constructed around humanoid robotics, embodied intelligence and the technologies enabling physical AI.

For a closer look at what each fund actually holds — including BOTZ, ARKQ, and HUMN alongside the funds above — see our guide to the top humanoid and robotics ETFs.

“Investors looking to back humanoid robotics often assume buying any robotics-branded ETF gives them concentrated exposure to the space,” said Lars Talbert, founder of The Robotic Life. “The spread in 2026 performance — from the mid-teens to nearly 60% — proves that fund architecture matters. Some portfolios are heavily weighted toward AI compute and pure-play robotics, while others are tethered to legacy machine tooling and factory hardware built for a prior generation. Our tracker replaces that guesswork with direct visibility into what’s actually under the hood.”

What the Expanded ETF Tracker Shows

The Robotic Life’s expanded ETF Tracker provides:

Pure-Play vs. Legacy Exposure Metrics — breakdowns showing the share of fund weight allocated to humanoid/embodied AI versus legacy industrial manufacturing.
Side-by-Side Fund Overlap — cross-fund analysis surfacing redundant holdings, concentration risk, and unexpected non-robotics allocations.
Component-Level Beneficiary Mapping — tracking across core hardware layers, including specialized actuators, sensor suites, and vision-language-action (VLA) platforms.

The expanded tool is live now at theroboticlife.com/robotics-investing, alongside The Robotic Life’s humanoid robot directory and company funding tracker.

About The Robotic Life

The Robotic Life is an independent humanoid robotics intelligence platform designed for investors, founders, and industry analysts. Stripping away tech-demo hype, the platform delivers data-driven market analysis on public equities, private capital deployment, and commercial milestones across the physical AI sector.

Investment disclosure: Performance figures were obtained from Google Finance market data and represent year-to-date total returns as of the September 4, 2026 market close, unless otherwise noted. Performance periods and reporting schedules vary by data source and issuer. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Fund holdings, expenses, and performance can change. The Robotic Life provides information for educational purposes only and does not provide investment, legal, or tax advice.

Source: Google Finance market data, as of the September 4, 2026 market close.