The folks at a multinational, 933-billion-euro-AUM ($1.0192-trillion-AUM) (as of June 30) are adding an AI-focused fund on this side of the pond.

Yesterday, Olivier Souliac, head of index for Xtrackers at DWS Group [profile], and Arne Noack, regional investment head for Xtrackers in the Americas, unveiled the launch of the Xtrackers Artificial Intelligence and Big Data ETF (XAIX on the Nasdaq). The launch boosts DWS' U.S. Xtrackers family to 40 funds in total with about $21 billion in combined AUM as of June 30.

XAIX's listing date was Friday (August 2), and it is a series of DBX ETF Trust. The new, passively managed ETF comes with an expense ratio of 35 basis points, and as of yesterday it held $4.52 million in AUM.

DBX Advisors LLC, a DWS subsidiary, serves as XAIX's investment advisor, and Nasdaq, Inc. serves as index provider. The new fund's PM team includes: Shlomo Bassous, senior portfolio engineer of systematic investment solutions for DWS Investment Management Americas, Inc; Patrick Dwyer, senior portfolio engineer and team lead for systemtic investment solutions at DWS Investment Management Americas; and Ashif Shaikh, portfolio engineer for systemtic investment solutions at DWS Investment Management Americas.

Amanda Rebello, head of U.S. sales for Xtrackers, describes XAIX as something that "can help with risk management by providing a diversified exposure to this theme."

"By tracking an index that caps individual stock weights, this may help minimize esoteric, single-stock exposure in a portfolio, thereby decreasing the chance of experiencing an extreme drawdown attributable to just one name's total return," Rebello states.

"With this fund, DWS is providing investors with exposure to AI producers and innovators, instead of the broad universe of AI beneficiaries," Noack states. "Many companies are starting to highlight the application of AI in their business models, however very few are AI innovators. The unique selection process of this index allows DWS and Nasdaq to identify who is truly an innovator systematically."

Noack notes that the debut of XAIX boosts DWS' "powerful line-up of thematic ETFs in the U.S. market." She describes the new ETF as "a unique and highly competitive proposition."

"We aim to offer investors broad access to the AI and Big Data technology producers powering the market today, and the ones that are poised to fuel the next stages of market growth beyond the AI-mega-caps," Souliac states. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE