iShares Automation & Robotics UCITS ETF

What this fund is

iShares Automation & Robotics UCITS ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) from iShares, traded under the ticker RBOT (ISIN IE00BYZK4552). In a single purchase you get a diversified basket of holdings rather than a stake in just one business. At its core it is a focused, thematic fund: it concentrates on the technology part of the market, so it lives or dies by that one area rather than the economy as a whole. Underneath, it is about owning small slices of companies, so you share in their growth when they do well — and their falls when they don't. Its largest holdings include ASTERA LABS INC, INTEL CORPORATION and ADVANTEST CORP.

With about 189 holdings (the ten largest ≈ 30.4%), your money is diversified rather than concentrated in a handful of names. By geography it is weighted towards ~61.1% United States, ~14.5% Japan and ~6.8% Germany. Its heaviest sectors are ~70.6% Technology and ~23.8% Industrials. A focused fund like this is typically held as a smaller 'satellite' position around a broader core — a way to lean into one theme, not usually a portfolio's only holding. Its ongoing charge (TER) is 0.4% a year — about €40 a year on a €10,000 holding, taken automatically from the fund.

Income such as dividends is automatically reinvested inside the fund (an accumulating share class), so returns compound without you doing anything. It holds the underlying investments directly (physical replication); it is domiciled in Ireland and UCITS-regulated, a European standard built to protect everyday investors and trades in USD. Its price has swung about 48.8% over the past year, which describes how much its price tends to move rather than whether it is good. It launched in 2016. As with any investment, its value can go down as well as up, and past performance is not a guide to future results. (Fund data sourced from iShares.)