The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) tracks the Nasdaq-100, which comprises 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq. It’s a fast, liquid way to own the innovation leaders that have shaped the last decade of market returns. We’ll start by looking directly under the hood, with the top-25 holdings table below showing where today’s influence really sits.
Rank | Ticker | Company | % of Fund |
---|---|---|---|
1 | NVDA | NVIDIA Corp | 9.49% |
2 | MSFT | Microsoft Corp | 8.29% |
3 | AAPL | Apple Inc | 8.26% |
4 | AVGO | Broadcom Inc | 5.77% |
5 | AMZN | Amazon.com Inc | 5.15% |
6 | META | Meta Platforms Inc | 3.59% |
7 | TSLA | Tesla Inc | 3.40% |
8 | GOOGL | Alphabet Inc Class A | 3.20% |
9 | GOOG | Alphabet Inc Class C | 3.00% |
10 | NFLX | Netflix Inc | 2.79% |
11 | PLTR | Palantir Technologies Inc | 2.24% |
12 | CSCO | Cisco Systems Inc | 1.44% |
13 | AMD | Advanced Micro Devices Inc | 1.41% |
14 | APP | AppLovin Corp | 1.08% |
15 | INTU | Intuit Inc | 1.05% |
16 | MU | Micron Technology Inc | 1.00% |
17 | SHOP | Shopify Inc | 0.99% |
18 | QCOM | QUALCOMM Inc | 0.99% |
19 | LRCX | Lam Research Corp | 0.90% |
20 | TXN | Texas Instruments Inc | 0.89% |
21 | AMAT | Applied Materials Inc | 0.86% |
22 | ADBE | Adobe Inc | 0.83% |
23 | KLAC | KLA Corp | 0.76% |
24 | PANW | Palo Alto Networks Inc | 0.73% |
25 | INTC | Intel Corp | 0.69% |
Investors are choosing QQQ for concentrated growth at a low friction cost, featuring tight spreads, massive AUM, and a roster tilted toward semiconductors, software, cloud, and consumer internet. That tilt is the point, QQQ isn’t “the market,” it’s the growth engine, and its sector mix reflects that (information technology is ~54% of the fund).
And while QQQ owns 100 names, performance is heavily driven by the giants at the top. In particular, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Apple now account for more than a quarter of the fund, so we’ll spotlight what each is doing and why it matters for QQQ holders.
1. NVIDIA (NVDA)
NVIDIA isn’t just building chips; it’s building the backbone of the AI economy. The latest Blackwell GPUs and Grace-Blackwell superchips aren’t sold in isolation, they come bundled with high-bandwidth memory, NVLink/NVSwitch interconnects, and a networking layer that now spans both InfiniBand and Spectrum-X Ethernet. It’s a package designed to keep massive clusters humming.
What sets NVIDIA apart is the software ecosystem that surrounds its hardware. CUDA, DGX systems, and DGX Cloud make life easier for developers and IT teams, ensuring workloads run efficiently and customers remain loyal. That full-stack approach turns silicon into a sticky platform.
For QQQ holders, NVIDIA’s weight is hard to ignore. At nearly 10% of the fund, the company’s every earnings release or product launch sends ripples across the ETF, making it one of the single biggest drivers of returns.
2. Microsoft (MSFT)
Microsoft has become the definition of a software empire, with Azure, Office 365, Windows, and GitHub covering cloud, productivity, endpoints, and developers. Each piece generates recurring revenue, reinforcing the company’s resilience through economic cycles.
AI integration is being executed with unusual pragmatism. Copilot is landing inside Office and Teams, where hundreds of millions already work, while Azure AI lets enterprises build with flexibility and governance in mind. The result isn’t hype, it’s sticky adoption that drives higher wallet share over time.
For QQQ, Microsoft brings balance. It may not rally as sharply as NVIDIA, but its consistent free cash flow, double-digit growth, and shareholder returns give the ETF both stability and compounding power.
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3. Apple (AAPL)
Apple’s edge isn’t just in hardware, but in the ecosystem of two billion devices that keep customers loyal. Services like the App Store, iCloud, Music, and Pay now deliver higher-margin revenue streams, adding predictability on top of the iPhone cycle.
Innovation remains steady. Apple Silicon has pushed performance ahead of its peers, Vision Pro has shown the company’s willingness to tackle entirely new categories, and ongoing health features have made the Watch more central to daily life. Even when unit sales flatten, upgrades and cross-sell keep the flywheel turning.
Inside QQQ, Apple is both anchor and accelerator. With enormous cash generation and one of the largest buyback programs in history, it delivers a blend of reliability and growth that makes up more than 8% of the fund’s weight.
What the QQQ Mix Means
QQQ is intentionally concentrated: the top-10 names account for just ~10% of the holdings but ~53% of the weight. That gives investors leveraged exposure to the platforms’ leading AI, cloud, semiconductors, and consumer internet sectors, which is great when the leaders perform well, but painful when they reset.
Beyond the top tier, the fund remains deeply invested in semis and software, including Broadcom, Palantir, AMD, Qualcomm, Adobe, and more. Therefore, the tech cycle (capex, ASPs, utilization, and enterprise IT spend) matters as much as the macroeconomic environment. If you want growth leadership in one ticker, QQQ is built for exactly that.
Key Insights
- Mega-cap dependence. A handful of names (NVDA/MSFT/AAPL/AMZN/GOOGL) dominate returns; leadership breadth or narrowness can swing the fund. Invesco
- Tech-heavy tilt. Information Technology alone is just over half the fund, with additional exposure from Comm Services and Consumer Discretionary tech-adjacent leaders.
- Capex cycle sensitivity. Semis and cloud spending, rather than classic consumer cyclicals, drive QQQ’s earnings power.
- Not “the market.” QQQ is a growth engine, not a total-market proxy; pair with broader funds if you want balanced sector exposure.
QQQ Top Holdings: Why a Few Tech Giants Drive Most of the Action
This is a fund designed to ride the winners. NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Apple alone drive a sizable chunk of day-to-day movement, and the rest of the top-10 adds another 20-plus points of weight. When AI, cloud, and platform economics compound, QQQ tends to outperform. Invesco
The flip side: concentration cuts both ways. If mega-cap tech stumbles or semis digest a capex surge, QQQ can lag diversified benchmarks. Owning it means accepting that growth leadership is the best.
QQQ remains one of the cleanest ways to capture U.S. innovation at scale, liquid, transparent, and tightly linked to the themes driving modern computing. Used as a satellite around a broad core (e.g., S&P-based ETF), it adds torque without stock-picking.
If you’re comfortable with the concentration and sector tilt, QQQ can be a long-term compounder. Just know what you’re really owning: not the whole market, but the front edge of it.
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Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!