July was another strong month for the ETF industry. Global ETF flows crossed the $1 trillion mark for the year before the start of summer, the earliest that milestone has been reached, and industry-wide assets have continued to set fresh records through 2026, with ETFGI tracking global ETF assets above $23 trillion by May and reporting 83 consecutive months of net inflows. The Ultumus dataset used for this report tracks the top 20 issuers and top 20 ETFs by AUM across each region, so figures below are a large and representative subset of the market rather than the full industry total; they are consistent in direction and scale with the broader third-party figures cited.
Within that backdrop, the standout theme for July was the continued and pronounced divergence between the two largest S&P 500 tracking ETFs: Vanguard's VOO pulled in $19.36bn of net new money while iShares' IVV shed $17.8bn, a reversal that recurs periodically around quarter-end rebalancing but which, on a rolling year-to-date basis, still favours VOO by a wide margin. This is examined in detail below.
US equities were resilient through most of July, with the S&P 500 touching fresh record highs early in the month on cooler inflation data. Sentiment on Fed policy shifted over the course of the month: expectations for a September rate cut firmed early on, before the Federal Reserve's late-July decision to hold rates unchanged left markets less certain about the path ahead. That mix of record equity prices and policy ambiguity is a useful lens for the flow data below: investors continued to add to core, low-cost equity exposure even as the rates outlook became murkier.
Across the top 20 global ETF issuers, combined AUM stood at $18.09tn at end-July, with net inflows across those same 20 issuers totalling roughly $201bn for the month. Vanguard led all issuers with $59.84bn of net inflows, followed by SPDR ($36.05bn) and iShares ($33.87bn). Vanguard and iShares remain by far the two largest issuers by AUM (26.8% and 33.5% of the top-20 total respectively), with SPDR a distant third at 12.4%.
| Issuer | AUM ($bn) | July Net Flow ($bn) |
| iShares | 6,058.6 | 33.87 |
| Vanguard | 4,856.5 | 59.84 |
| SPDR | 2,235.2 | 36.05 |
| Invesco | 1,133.8 | 10.37 |
| Schwab | 590.6 | 6.49 |
| Xtrackers | 417.8 | 8.63 |
| JPMorgan | 394.5 | 10.04 |
| Amundi | 290.8 | 2.33 |
| FirstTrust | 287.1 | 3.57 |
| Dimensional | 286.5 | 5.16 |
| ETF | AUM ($bn) | July Net Flow ($bn) |
| VOO (Vanguard S&P 500) | 986.7 | 19.36 |
| IVV (iShares Core S&P 500) | 875.1 | (17.80) |
| SPY (SPDR S&P 500) | 789.7 | 14.63 |
| VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market) | 661.1 | 4.59 |
| QQQ (Invesco Nasdaq-100) | 450.1 | (4.97) |
| VEA (Vanguard FTSE Developed Mkts) | 231.1 | 0.88 |
| VUG (Vanguard Growth) | 217.0 | (1.26) |
| IEFA (iShares Core MSCI EAFE) | 191.6 | 0.63 |
| VTV (Vanguard Value) | 188.2 | (0.10) |
| SPYM (SPDR Portfolio S&P 500, mini) | 162.4 | 7.86 |
The gap between VOO's inflow and IVV's outflow is the largest single divergence anywhere in the global top-20 ETF table, and is addressed in its own section below.
US-listed ETFs among the top 20 issuers held $14.74tn in AUM, with Vanguard ($50.61bn), iShares ($19.12bn) and SPDR ($34.56bn) again the dominant sources of net new money. Invesco, Schwab, JPMorgan and Dimensional all posted solid single-digit-billion inflows, while ProShares was the only issuer in the US top 20 with a net outflow (-$1.95bn), consistent with its leveraged/inverse product mix, which tends to see more volatile, direction-dependent flows.
At the ETF level, the US market told a similar story to the global picture: VOO (+$19.36bn) and SPY (+$14.63bn) were the two largest gatherers of net new assets, while IVV (-$17.94bn) and QQQ (-$4.97bn) were the two largest sources of outflows. VTI (+$4.59bn) and SPYM (+$7.86bn) also drew healthy inflows, underlining continued retail and advisor demand for low-cost, broad-market core exposure even as flows rotate between near-identical S&P 500 vehicles.
Third-party data corroborates the scale of the US market: ETF.com and ETFGI both tracked cumulative 2026 US ETF inflows crossing $1 trillion before mid-year, with State Street's 2026 Global ETF Outlook forecasting roughly $2.1 trillion of full-year US ETF inflows, concentrated disproportionately in VOO, IVV and VTI.
European top-20 issuers held $3.53tn in AUM, with iShares overwhelmingly dominant (41.0% share, $16.49bn of July inflows). Vanguard ($7.95bn) and Xtrackers ($7.88bn) were the next-largest gatherers, followed by Invesco ($6.2bn) and UBS ($3.08bn). Fidelity was the only issuer in the European top 20 to register a net outflow in the month (-$0.17bn), a modest figure against the scale of the broader inflow picture.
At the product level, Vanguard's FTSE All-World UCITS ETF (VWRA) was the standout, gathering $3.42bn, more than double the next-largest European ETF inflow, reflecting continued strength in single-ticket, globally diversified core holdings among European retail and wealth-platform investors. iShares' Core MSCI EM IMI (EIMI) and Core FTSE 100 (ISF) products, along with several Xtrackers and Amundi trackers, also saw solid inflows across the month.
This is consistent with the wider European picture reported by LSEG Lipper and ETFGI: European ETF industry net inflows reached a record $265.65bn year-to-date through June, comfortably ahead of the prior full-year record, with iShares alone taking in €65.7bn in H1 2026 (39.6% market share), Amundi €28.5bn (12.5% share) and Xtrackers third by assets. European ETF industry AUM passed €3tn for the first time in 2026, a milestone reached partly on the back of this flow strength and partly on market appreciation.
The most notable single data point in this month's report: among the 20 largest US-issuer equity ETFs, VOO continued to attract inflows to the apparent detriment of IVV. VOO gathered $19.36bn in July while IVV shed $17.8bn (global figure) or $17.94bn (US-only figure), an almost mirror-image swing between what are, functionally, the same product wearing different sponsor logos: both track the S&P 500, both charge 3 basis points, and both sit as defaults in countless model portfolios.
| Metric | VOO (Vanguard) | IVV (iShares) |
| AUM (global, end-July) | $986.7bn | $875.1bn |
| July net flow (global) | +$19.36bn | -$17.80bn |
| Expense ratio | 0.03% | 0.03% |
| 2026 YTD flow (as of late July, third-party estimate) | +$78.87bn | +$34.39bn |
Two things are worth holding in mind when reading this month's number in isolation. First, it sits within a much longer-running pattern rather than a one-off: third-party trackers estimate VOO has pulled in roughly $400bn since June 2021 against IVV's roughly $250bn over the same stretch, and VOO became the first ETF ever to cross $1 trillion in net assets, on 2 June 2026. Second, flows between these two funds can swing sharply and temporarily around quarter-ends and rebalancing windows: reporting earlier in 2026 flagged a quarter in which IVV took in an estimated $51.4bn while VOO saw a $53bn outflow over the same short window, the mirror image of what July shows. That kind of seesaw is generally attributed to model-portfolio rebalancing, index-fund-of-fund switching, and tax-related trading rather than a genuine change in investor preference, so a single month's flow split between these two near-identical funds should be read as noisy around a real but much more gradual longer-term trend favouring Vanguard.
Put together, the July data is consistent with commentary elsewhere in the market (ETF Trends dubbed the ongoing VOO/IVV flow race the "World Series of Inflows") describing VOO as the more consistent gatherer of new assets on a cumulative basis, while acknowledging that IVV remains a very close substitute that periodically wins individual months or quarters, particularly around institutional rebalancing dates.
Active ETFs: the Ultumus Active Products dataset shows JPMorgan as the largest active-ETF platform globally ($294bn AUM, +$8.38bn July inflows), with Dimensional (+$4.93bn), Roundhill (+$6.51bn) and American Century (+$4.27bn) also gathering meaningfully. Active fixed income and options-income strategies remain a growth area distinct from the core passive-equity story above.
Fixed income: global fixed income ETFs among the top 20 issuers took in roughly $77bn in July, led by iShares (+$20.44bn) and Vanguard (+$16.09bn); JPMorgan's active fixed income and ultra-short cash-management products (JAAA, JPST) continued to see steady demand.
Digital assets: crypto ETF flows were mixed and much smaller in scale than equity or fixed income. Global crypto top-20 issuers saw a net outflow of roughly $9m for the month, with iShares' IBIT seeing a monthly outflow (-$359.6m) after a period of heavy accumulation, against continued inflows into newer Ethereum and altcoin products.
Asia: flows were more mixed than in the West. Mirae Asset (+$5.28bn) and Samsung Kodex (+$1.58bn) led inflows, while iShares' Asia-listed range saw a net outflow (-$2.53bn), and several Taiwan- and Korea-listed fixed income ETFs also saw redemptions.
Third-party commentary and figures (VOO/IVV YTD flows, European industry totals, macro backdrop) are drawn from published sources as listed below and are provided for context; they were not independently reconciled against the Ultumus dataset.
Ultumus ETF $AUM & $Flow Report and ETF $AUM & $Flow Report - Active Products, 01-31 July 2026 (internal).
ETF Trends: "2026 ETF Flows Cross $1 Trillion Milestone Before Summer"; "In the World Series of Inflows, VOO Could Also Go Back-to-Back"; "2026 ETF Inflows: Who Is Leading the Group?"
ETFGI: press releases on global ETF asset milestones and 2026 net inflow records (etfgi.com).
ETF.com: "ETF Inflows Top $1 Trillion at the Halfway Point of 2026"; ETF fund flows tool.
State Street: "2026 Global ETF Outlook: From wrapper to backbone".
ETF Express: European ETF Market Wrap weekly series, July-August 2026; "HI 2026 saw strong inflows into European ETFs: LSEG Lipper".
Funds Europe: "European ETF assets top €3tn after record first half".
CNBC: Stock market live-update coverage, 1-30 July 2026.
Benzinga / 24/7 Wall St.: coverage of S&P 500 ETF flow dynamics (VOO, IVV, SPY), May-July 2026.