About 180 new ETFs established this year, who is subscribing? Retail investors account for 70% of the new ETF issuance market, with "super retail investors" investing over 100 million yuan, while private equity funds and foreign capital are snapping up shares

As of the halfway point of 2026, the new fund issuance market remains hot. As of June 26, a total of 860 new funds have been established this year, with a total issuance scale of 643.046 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.54%. Among them, CICC VIPShop Commercial REIT, Southern Balance Return, and GF Research Smart Selection rank among the top three in terms of issuance scale, all exceeding 7 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, the number of subscription accounts can better reflect investors' enthusiasm. Since the beginning of this year, a total of 11 funds have had more than 100,000 subscription accounts. The China Europe SSE STAR Market Artificial Intelligence Index Fund, Yongying Ruijian Growth, and Industrial Securities CSI Battery Theme Index have all received subscriptions from more than 200,000 accounts. In contrast, only 2 ETFs had more than 100,000 subscription accounts for new funds during the same period last year.

Who is actively subscribing to new funds?

After excluding REITs with a strong strategic placement nature and almost fully subscribed by institutions, the ETFs newly established this year and with published listing transaction announcements depict a new profile of holders: individual investors have become the absolute protagonists, "big retail investors" (high-net-worth individuals) are emerging in the ETF market with astonishing subscription scales, private equity funds are the absolute main participants, and foreign capital has also made an appearance.

In addition, fund companies such as ICBC Credit Suisse and E Fund have also actively subscribed to their newly issued products with their own funds, while the brokerage funds that played the role of "cornerstone" in the new issuance of ETFs in previous years are receding.

"Big retail investors" invest over 100 million yuan, and retail investors support 70% of the new ETF issuance market

Wind data shows that approximately 180 new ETFs have been established this year. In terms of the holder structure, only 12 ETFs have an institutional investor share of over 40%, while 161 ETFs have an individual investor share of over 70%.

Calculated by simple arithmetic weighting, individual holders account for over 70% of the newly issued ETFs, far exceeding the 21.63% share of individual investors in the entire market's existing ETFs at the end of 2025.

Different industry themes and strategic positions lead to a huge differentiation in the ETF holder structure. Military and state-owned enterprise ETFs often have industrial capital as a "ballast". For example, in the Fuguo CSI Smart Selection Shipbuilding Industry ETF, although the subscribers are mainly retail investors, the largest holder, CSSC Capital Investment Co., Ltd., alone subscribed for 100 million shares. Technology and growth-themed popular ETFs have almost become the "main battlefield" for retail investors to chase.

Among the newly established ETFs, 100 products have an individual holder share of over 90%, and 6 have a share of over 99%. The top ten holders of 12 funds, including China Merchants CSI New Energy Vehicle ETF, Harvest SSE STAR Market 200 ETF, Penghua CSI Industrial Nonferrous Metals Theme ETF, Huatai-PineBridge CSI All-Share Securities Company ETF, and Invesco Great Wall GEM New Energy ETF, are all individual investors.

High-net-worth investors are entering the market through ETFs, and "big retail investors" such as Zhan Yong and Lin Zijun are particularly "generous".

Among them, Zhan Yong is the largest holder of Great Wall GEM Free Cash Flow ETF, Penghua SSE STAR Market Chip Design Theme ETF, and Huatai-PineBridge CSI Construction Machinery Theme ETF, subscribing for 50 million yuan, 30 million yuan, and 20 million yuan respectively, with a total subscription amount of 100 million yuan; Lin Zijun is the largest holder of Huatai-PineBridge CSI Home Appliance ETF, E Fund CSI Battery Theme ETF, Yin Hua GEM Industrial Software Theme ETF, and Invesco Great Wall GEM New Energy ETF, with a total subscription amount of 78 million yuan.

In addition, Zuo Hengtao, Zhong Yanqiong, Yu Songwei, Wang Xue, Yin Xiaoqin, Sun Tiancheng, Chu Rong, etc. are the largest holders of multiple ETFs.

Quantitative and long strategies coexist, private equity becomes the "new favorite" in subscribing to technology-themed ETFs

The enthusiasm of private equity funds for allocating ETFs continues to rise. According to the reporter's statistics, as of June 26, 28 newly established ETFs this year have private equity funds as their largest holders. Another statistics from Private Equity Ranking Network previously showed that as of May 21, products under 86 private equity fund managers appeared on the list of the top ten holders of 91 ETFs listed this year, with a total holding of 1.093 billion shares.

Technology-themed ETFs are the most favored. Among them, the Southern SSE STAR Market Artificial Intelligence ETF received private equity subscriptions of over 51.9 million yuan, and the Guolian Hang Seng Hong Kong Stock Connect Technology ETF and Boshi Hang Seng Hong Kong Stock Connect Technology ETF received private equity subscriptions of 23.95 million yuan and 21.35 million yuan respectively.

Among private equity fund managers, Zhongyi Asset and Zhufeng Asset have subscribed for over 100 million yuan of ETFs this year, and 10-billion-level private equity funds such as Qilin Investment, Tuote (Sanya) Private Equity, and Luoshu Investment have also increased their subscriptions for ETFs.

Li Chunyu, the FOF fund manager of Rongzhi Investment under Private Equity Ranking Network Group, believes that ETFs are favored by private equity funds due to the triple advantages of being an efficient tool:

First, strategy execution is efficient, facilitating precise layout. Through industry-themed ETFs, investors can quickly express their views on the track, implement rotation or hedging strategies, and avoid the complicated process of individual stock selection.

Second, it reduces transaction costs and disperses individual stock risks. The basket configuration of ETFs can effectively disperse the high volatility of technology stocks and specific risks of individual stocks, and reduce the impact cost of large-scale capital transactions.

Third, there is sufficient liquidity, facilitating the operation of large funds. The scale of mainstream technology-themed ETFs is growing rapidly, and the liquidity is abundant, providing convenience for private equity funds to make large-scale allocations and flexible position adjustments.

"ETFs can provide stable returns above the market average. For private equity funds pursuing absolute returns, this is conducive to consolidating the basic performance target and avoiding the risk of stepping on landmines in individual stocks," said Bao Xiaohui, the chairman of Changli Asset.

It is worth noting that quantitative private equity funds are particularly active in participating in ETFs. A quantitative private equity person pointed out that there are many institutions currently focusing on the ETF rotation strategy in the market. The core of the strategy is to predict and screen strong sectors, conduct trend timing trading, and adjust long positions among more than 1,000 industry-themed style ETFs in the entire market, while also using stock index CTA for timing short selling protection to obtain stable returns.

Foreign capital appears, Barclays Bank becomes the largest holder of two ETFs

Barclays Bank has taken the top position in two chip-themed ETFs this year.

In June, Barclays Bank became the largest holder of Guotai SSE STAR Market 50 Component ETF, with a subscription amount of 20 million yuan, accounting for 8.69%. In March, Barclays Bank also subscribed for Guotai SSE STAR Market Chip Design Theme ETF, holding 15 million yuan, accounting for 7.21%, also as the largest holder.

Foreign capital has always been one of the important forces in investing in A-shares. Well-known foreign institutions such as UBS, Barclays Bank, BNP Paribas, and JPMorgan Chase Group have been actively involved in investing in domestic ETFs. As of the end of 2025, foreign capital appeared among the top ten holders of 440 ETFs. Barclays Bank and UBS held domestic ETFs with a market value of over 8 billion yuan and 6 billion yuan respectively.

In the view of the industry, with the increasing maturity of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect mechanisms and the continuous net inflow of foreign capital into A-shares, domestic public funds still have great potential in attracting long-term foreign capital to allocate Chinese assets through ETFs.

An observer pointed out that whether in terms of existing or new ETFs, the holder structure has undergone profound changes this year: retail investors are no longer keen on individual stock games and are entering the market through ETFs. This is an accurate capture of the structural opportunities in the technology bull market and a rational avoidance of the high volatility risks of individual stocks. The active participation of private equity funds and foreign capital highlights the increasing "tool" attribute of the current market. However, fund companies also need to be vigilant against the "herd effect" and emotional volatility risks hidden in the one-sided technology market and guide various types of funds to invest more long-term and rationally.

This article is from the WeChat official account “China Fund News” (ID: chinafundnews), author: Yan Jun, published by 36Kr with authorization.