# VGT vs XLK

Vanguard Information Technology ETF against Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund.

Canonical page: https://tickerinside.com/compare/vgt-vs-xlk/
Prices through 2026-09-04. VGT holdings as published 2026-07-31, XLK 2026-09-03.
Licence: CC BY 4.0, attribution to TickerInside.

## The short answer

XLK is the technology sector of the S&P 500, 74 positions; VGT is the same sector across the whole US market, 319. Every XLK company is in VGT, and the 246 that are only in VGT weigh 12.2%. Their weekly returns correlated at 0.99.

## Key figures

| Measure | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Holdings overlap by weight | 81.3% |
| Companies held by both | 73 |
| Share of VGT held in common | 87.8% |
| Share of XLK held in common | 100.0% |
| Correlation of weekly returns, 3 years | 0.99 |
| Cost per year | VGT 0.09%, XLK 0.08% |
| Return, 3 years | VGT 126.2%, XLK 121.1% |
| Worst fall, 3 years | VGT -25.6%, XLK -24.0% |
| Volatility, annualised | VGT 23.4%, XLK 23.9% |
| Positions | VGT 319, XLK 73 |

## Analysis

### One sector, two universes

Both funds hold the information technology sector and nothing else. XLK draws it from the S&P 500, which gives 74 positions; VGT draws it from an index that also covers mid and small caps, which gives 319. All 73 of XLK's companies are in VGT, so 100.0%** of XLK's weight is shared, and 87.8% of VGT's.

### What the 246 extra companies weigh

Snowflake, Cloudflare, Astera Labs, Credo, Okta, Twilio and MongoDB are the largest positions VGT holds that XLK does not, and with the rest of the small-cap tail they come to 12.2% of VGT. The gap between 81.3% and full overlap is 18.7% of weight; the tail accounts for 12.2% of it and weighting for the rest, since Nvidia and Apple are heavier in VGT than in XLK. The ten largest positions are 62.5% of VGT and 61.4% of XLK.

### Returns that differ by window, risk that does not

Over the past year XLK returned 43.2%** against 39.4% for VGT; over three years VGT led at 126.2% against 121.1%; over five years XLK led again at 148.3% against 138.3%. Volatility was 23.4% against 23.9% and the worst falls -25.6% against -24.0%, with betas of 1.49 and 1.5 against the S&P 500. XLK charges 0.08% against 0.09%, $1 a year on $10,000.

### Correlated at 0.99

Weekly returns correlated at 0.99 over three years and 0.99 over five, about as close to one as two different funds get. XLK yields 0.43% against 0.36%. Owning both is one technology position of 320 companies, with the small caps at half the weight VGT alone would give them.

## Largest positions held by both

| Ticker | Company | In VGT | In XLK | Counted as overlap |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NVDA | NVIDIA Corp. | 17.21% | 14.9% | 14.9% |
| AAPL | Apple Inc. | 16.29% | 12.99% | 12.99% |
| MSFT | Microsoft Corp. | 10.99% | 10.21% | 10.21% |
| AVGO | Broadcom Inc. | 4.22% | 4.56% | 4.22% |
| MU | Micron Technology Inc. | 3.83% | 4.01% | 3.83% |
| AMD | Advanced Micro Devices Inc. | 3.18% | 3.82% | 3.18% |
| CSCO | Cisco Systems Inc. | 1.92% | 2.82% | 1.92% |
| AMAT | Applied Materials Inc. | 1.69% | 2.28% | 1.69% |
| INTC | Intel Corp. | 1.66% | 2.98% | 1.66% |
| LRCX | Lam Research Corp. | 1.54% | 2.41% | 1.54% |
| PANW | Palo Alto Networks Inc. | 1.16% | 1.77% | 1.16% |
| PLTR | Palantir Technologies Inc. Class A | 1.14% | 2.76% | 1.14% |
| TXN | Texas Instruments Inc. | 1.07% | 1.52% | 1.07% |
| KLAC | KLA Corp. | 1.02% | 1.49% | 1.02% |
| ORCL | Oracle Corp. | 0.9% | 1.72% | 0.9% |

## Covariance and correlation

Covariance is annualised and expressed in percent squared, so the diagonal is each fund's variance. Dividing the off-diagonal by the two volatilities returns the correlation.

| | VGT | XLK |
| --- | --- | --- |
| VGT | 548 | 554.8 |
| XLK | 554.8 | 571 |

Correlation over 1, 3 and 5 years: 0.99, 0.99, 0.99.

## Method

How every figure is produced: https://tickerinside.com/how-the-numbers-are-produced/
Machine readable version of this comparison: https://tickerinside.com/api/v1/compare/vgt-vs-xlk.json