Key Highlights

● SHOC rose 0.19% to $101.18 in Friday's October 16 intraday session.

● The fund tracks the Bloomberg US Listed Semiconductor Select Index with about 30 holdings.

● Strive charges a 0.40% expense ratio and votes proxies against non-economic proposals.

● SHOC's 30-day SEC yield is approximately 0.22% as of October 2026.

The Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF (NYSE:SHOC) rose 0.19% to $101.18 in intraday trading on Friday, October 16. The global semiconductor industry has become deeply entangled in geopolitical industrial policy, national security mandates, and non-financial stakeholder agendas. However, manufacturing advanced microelectronics requires relentless operational discipline, multi-billion-dollar capital allocation efficiency, and singular focus on technological excellence.

The fund was created to champion this shareholder-centric philosophy, delivering direct exposure to the US-listed semiconductor industry while actively voting corporate proxies to prioritize shareholder value over political or social mandates. By encouraging portfolio companies to focus strictly on fabrication yield, fab construction timelines, and return on invested capital (ROIC), SHOC aims to align shareholder returns directly with global microchip demand.

Legal Architecture & Benchmark Index Rules

SHOC is registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 as an open-end management investment company, operating as a distinct investment series of The RBB Fund, Inc. Launched in October 2022 and sponsored by Strive Asset Management of Dallas, Texas, the fund is overseen by Strive Asset Management as its registered investment advisor, which oversees index replication and executing an active shareholder engagement mandate.

The fund tracks the Bloomberg US Listed Semiconductor Select Index. This rules-based benchmark selects the largest and most liquid semiconductor design and manufacturing companies listed on primary United States stock exchanges. The index enforces strict liquidity filters and a modified market-capitalization weighting methodology that applies tiered capping constraints to maintain broad industry representation across silicon designers, foundries, and semiconductor capital equipment makers.

Portfolio Composition: Core US Silicon & Capital Equipment Titans

SHOC holds approximately 30 common stocks and American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) representing the physical architecture of global artificial intelligence and digital computing.

Its top portfolio holdings include graphical processing unit titan NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), communications semiconductor leader Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), microprocessor innovators AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), specialized memory provider Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU), and dominant semiconductor capital equipment makers Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT), Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX), and KLA Corporation (NASDAQ:KLAC), alongside Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NYSE:TSM). The portfolio is concentrated, with the top ten holdings making up roughly 75% of assets. This composition gives shareholders comprehensive exposure to both microchip design intellectual property and the complex fabrication machinery required to build it.

Cost Structure, Operating Expenses & Shareholder Proxy Mandate

Strive charges an annual management expense ratio of 0.40% for SHOC. This fee is competitive with legacy semiconductor peers like iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) at 0.35% and VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ:SMH) at 0.35%, while funding Strive's dedicated corporate governance and proxy voting infrastructure.

Unlike traditional passive asset managers that frequently support ESG shareholder resolutions, Strive explicitly exercises its proxy voting power to vote against non-economic shareholder proposals, actively advocating that board directors focus management compensation and capital expenditures entirely on product innovation, fab operational excellence, and shareholder profitability.

Performance Dissection: Capturing the Hardware Supercycle

In intraday trading on Friday, October 16, SHOC opened at $100.63 and moved between $99.94 and $102.19, against a previous close of $100.99. The fund's 52-week range runs from a low of $60.62 to a peak of $124.68. That range reflects surging corporate capex into artificial intelligence infrastructure and sovereign subsidies under the US CHIPS Act.

By maintaining heavy allocations across leading equipment vendors and chip designers, SHOC captured the entire hardware scaling curve, benefiting from expanding operating margins across fabless designers and multi-billion-dollar backlog growth across equipment manufacturers.

Distribution Profile, Dividend Yield & Form 1099 Taxation

Because semiconductor companies prioritize aggressive capital expenditures, fabrication plant investments, and research and development over cash distributions, SHOC maintains a modest income profile. The fund pays annual dividend distributions with a 30-day SEC yield of approximately 0.22% as of October 2026.

From a taxation standpoint, SHOC provides standard Form 1099-DIV reporting. Distributions generally qualify as qualified dividend income (QDI) for eligible US investors, and the fund completely avoids the administrative burdens of Schedule K-1 partnership tax forms.

Secondary Market Liquidity & Lead Market Making

Trading under the ticker SHOC, the fund benefits from active secondary market liquidity supported by lead market makers and institutional authorized participants. Intraday bid-ask spreads typically hover between two and four cents per share during normal market hours.

Because underlying portfolio holdings trade on deep US exchanges with multi-billion-dollar market capitalizations, authorized participants easily create and redeem shares, ensuring secondary quotes remain closely aligned with net asset value.

Primary Investment Risks: Cyclical Semiconductor Demand & Trade Friction

Investing in SHOC involves pronounced sector risks. The semiconductor sector is inherently cyclical, prone to sudden shifts between chip shortages and inventory gluts that can depress operating margins across the value chain.

Additionally, the industry faces severe geopolitical risks, including US government export controls restricting advanced semiconductor tool shipments to China, and potential manufacturing disruptions in East Asian foundry hubs.

Proxy-Driven Pure-Play Chip Exposure

The Strive U.S. Semiconductor ETF pairs a rules-based semiconductor portfolio with an active shareholder engagement mandate. It tracks the Bloomberg US Listed Semiconductor Select Index, holds about 30 stocks and ADRs, and charges a 0.40% expense ratio.

Strive votes against non-economic shareholder proposals, a policy that separates SHOC from passive semiconductor funds that frequently support ESG resolutions.