Vanguard VOO Hits $1T in Assets Amid Massive Inflows
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF crossed $1T in assets, becoming the first ETF ever to reach that level.
Five years ago, VOO was the smallest of the three major S&P 500 ETFs, with roughly $225B in assets against State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust's roughly $360B lead, per Morningstar.
Investors added more than $400B in new money to VOO between June 2021 and May 2026, per the same report.
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF pulled in an estimated $250B over that same stretch, while SPY collected just $88B.
VOO charges 0.03% annually, a third of SPY's 0.09% fee, per ETF.com, though the cost gap alone doesn't explain the gap in flows since IVV matches VOO's fee and trails it significantly in inflows.
VOO has taken in roughly $69B in 2026, more than any other fund, while SPY has posted net outflows over the same period, per ETF.com.
"Most long-term investors are using VOO as the easy button now, not SPY," said Dave Nadig, president and director of research at ETF.com.
The S&P 500 is up 11% year to date in 2026, lifting assets alongside the inflow stream.
VOO also posted more than $100B in annual inflows in each of the two prior years, per Bloomberg.
Vanguard's Unlikely ETF Empire
The $1T milestone carries a touch of irony given Vanguard's history.
The firm was founded more than 50 years ago by the late Jack Bogle, who was famously skeptical of ETFs, per Bloomberg.
VOO is technically a share class of Vanguard 500 Index Fund, which launched on Aug. 31, 1976 — the first index-tracking fund available to retail investors, per Morningstar.
The SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF, the second-highest fund for inflows in 2026 at $37B, held roughly $150B in assets — fast-growing but not yet a threat to VOO's lead.
Now Vanguard is on the cusp of surpassing BlackRock for the title of world's largest ETF issuer, per the same report.
Ben Johnson, head of client solutions at Morningstar, framed the moment in industry terms: "What was once a fringe category has become the default investment wrapper for millions of investors around the world," he said.
