Defiance makes its European debut with a UCITS ETF focused on energy infrastructure for artificial intelligence

Defiance makes its European debut with a UCITS ETF focused on energy infrastructure for artificial intelligence

On 27 March 2026, US issuer Defiance launched trading on Borsa Italiana and Xetra of the Defiance AI & Power Infrastructure UCITS ETF (ticker: AIPO). This marks the group’s first foray into the European ETF market, achieved in partnership with HANetf.

The fund tracks the MarketVector™ – Defiance US Listed AI and Power Infrastructure Index (MVDAIPO). The index measures the performance of US companies operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence and critical energy infrastructure, including electricity generation, utilities, data centres and AI hardware.

Investment strategy and index construction

The Defiance AI & Power Infrastructure UCITS ETF employs a passive management approach with a replication strategy. The objective is to replicate the performance of the benchmark index, gross of fees and expenses.

The index selects US-listed companies with a market capitalisation of over $300 million and a minimum average daily trading volume of $1 million over the past three months. To be eligible, companies must generate at least 50 per cent of their revenue from one of the four sub-themes defined by the methodology:

1. Power generation and grid equipment: includes manufacturers of equipment for power generation and transmission, nuclear technologies, industrial batteries and storage solutions.
2. Construction and engineering: includes services for the construction of power grids, data centres and technology infrastructure.
3. Utilities and electricity producers: companies active in nuclear power generation and independent power producers.
4. Data centres and AI hardware: owners or operators of data centres and manufacturers of hardware components dedicated to AI.

The weighting of the four sectors within the index is defined as follows: 50 per cent for power generation and network equipment, 15 per cent for construction and engineering, 15 per cent for electricity utilities and power producers, and 20 per cent for data centres and AI hardware.

Within each sub-theme, stocks are weighted by free-float market capitalisation. The maximum weighting for any single stock is capped at 8 per cent, with a limit of 4 per cent for companies in the data centre and AI hardware segment. The index is reconstituted and rebalanced quarterly in March, June, September and December.

Portfolio composition

As at 23 March 2026, the fund managed assets of $243.7 million. The number of holdings stands at 57. The top ten positions in the portfolio account for approximately 50 per cent of the total.

From a sectoral perspective, the index is predominantly exposed to the industrial sector (59.33 per cent), followed by utilities (14.26 per cent) and information technology (13.99 per cent). The geographical breakdown shows the United States at 80.39 per cent, followed by Ireland (9.65 per cent), Canada (7.22 per cent) and the Netherlands (1.20 per cent).

Operational data and performance

The ETF has a Total Expense Ratio of 0.69 per cent. The US version was launched on 24 July 2025. Since the start of the year, the cumulative performance as at 20 March 2026 was 18.51 per cent of net asset value. Annualised volatility since launch stands at 32.8 per cent.

The fund is classified as ‘non-diversified’ under US regulations dating from 1940 and has a significant concentration in the industrial and electrical equipment sectors.

Market outlook

According to estimates by Goldman Sachs, the International Energy Agency and the US Department of Energy, capital requirements for artificial intelligence-related infrastructure will exceed $2 trillion by 2030. This figure includes investments in electricity generation, grid modernisation, data centre construction and AI hardware.

Energy consumption by data centres is set to more than double by 2030, reaching around 1,000 terawatt-hours per year. Spending on the modernisation of electricity grids in the US is estimated at $820 billion by 2035. In the nuclear sector, new plants worth over $500 billion have been announced or are under development by 2040.