VanEck Semiconductor ETF Sees Outflows Amid AI Resilience

VanEck Semiconductor ETF ( $SMH ) has fallen by 0.07% in the past week. It has experienced a 5-day net outflow of $138.23 million.
This is due, in part, to market sentiment on some of the ETF’s largest holdings. For example:

• Nvidia Corporation remains at the center of the AI boom, with Susquehanna highlighting exceptionally strong demand for its next‑generation Blackwell and Rubin data‑center platforms and a backlog that has surpassed earlier expectations, reinforcing confidence in continued hyperscale spending. Despite a brief pullback in AI chip stocks after Intel’s weak outlook and supply warnings, Nvidia shares quickly rebounded, underscoring investor confidence and a sector view that any near‑term volatility is outweighed by long‑term AI growth. Wall Street continues to treat Nvidia as a top AI play, with a Strong Buy rating and projected upside of more than 40% as investors look to upcoming earnings for confirmation of the robust AI and data‑center demand narrative.
• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited is quietly consolidating its leadership in advanced chip manufacturing while fine‑tuning governance and capital allocation. The company refreshed the board of its key U.S. subsidiary, TSMC North America, which could sharpen oversight in its largest overseas market just as AI‑driven demand accelerates. December filings showed only modest insider share increases and conservative portfolio shifts into fixed‑income, signaling a stable financial stance. Options trading has been active but mixed, with periods of modest bullishness followed by increased demand for downside protection as investors weigh competitive pressure from Intel’s new 18A node against TSMC’s own AI‑chip packaging ramp and heavy capex program. Even so, both human analysts and TipRanks’ AI “Spark” rate TSMC as an Outperform/Buy, citing elite margins, strong balance sheet and AI‑led growth, albeit with a rich valuation and execution risks on global expansion.
• Broadcom Inc. continues to emerge as a key infrastructure supplier for the AI era, leveraging its dominant position in custom AI chips and networking hardware. Susquehanna points to steady sector recovery and notes that Google’s in‑house AI processors remain an important growth driver for Broadcom, while separate research estimates the company controls roughly 55%–60% of the custom AI‑chip market, with AI sales up more than 70% year over year and powering record revenue. The stock did soften alongside other AI names after Intel’s supply‑chain warning, but sentiment remains firmly positive: multiple major brokerages, including Bank of America and Deutsche Bank, reiterated Buy ratings with price targets clustering in the low‑to‑mid‑$400s, and consensus views Broadcom as a high‑P/E, high‑growth AI winner with over 40% upside, well positioned to benefit as hyperscalers scale out their AI data‑center footprints.