Nasdaq 100
The 100 largest non-financial Nasdaq names, concentrated, growth-tilted, more volatile.
What it tracks
The Nasdaq-100 takes the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, by . "Non-financial" is deliberate, banks, insurance companies and investment funds are excluded. That exclusion, combined with Nasdaq's history as the technology exchange, means the is heavily tilted toward software, semiconductors, consumer internet, and e-commerce. A modified market-cap weighting is used to prevent any single from dominating too much, though in practice the top 10 names still account for roughly 40% of the total. The index is rebalanced quarterly and reconstituted annually.
Geographic exposure
Where in the world the index is invested, by domicile of listed company. For global indices this varies significantly between developed and emerging markets.
The Nasdaq-100 is almost entirely US-domiciled, but its companies are deeply global in their revenues. Alphabet and Meta serve worldwide advertising markets; Apple sells heavily in China; Nvidia's chips power data centres on every continent. The international revenue exposure is high despite the 96%+ US domicile figure.
Approximate end-2025 figures
Historical performance
Annual total returns from 2001 onward, including reinvested . Move the slider to see what a different starting amount would have become, and switch to the bar view to see how uneven the path actually was.
Total return, dividends reinvested, before fees and taxes. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Returns by decade
Average annualised return for each full decade. This view makes it obvious that the path is anything but smooth, the 2000s were a lost decade for US equities, erasing all gains from the dot-com crash and the 2008 financial crisis.
* 2020s is partial (2020–2025). All figures are approximate total return .
Sector breakdown
How the index splits across the eleven standard GICS sectors. The bigger the bar, the larger the weight in the index.
Approximate end-2025 figures
Top 10 holdings
The largest names in the index by weight. Together they make up a meaningful share of the whole, pay attention to concentration.
| # | Company | Ticker | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apple | AAPL | 8.8% |
| 2 | Nvidia | NVDA | 8.5% |
| 3 | Microsoft | MSFT | 7.8% |
| 4 | Amazon | AMZN | 5.1% |
| 5 | Alphabet (Google) | GOOGL | 3.0% |
| 6 | Meta Platforms | META | 3.0% |
| 7 | Tesla | TSLA | 2.9% |
| 8 | Broadcom | AVGO | 2.6% |
| 9 | Costco | COST | 1.6% |
| 10 | Netflix | NFLX | 1.3% |
ETFs that track it
The funds most long-term investors use to own this index. Lower are almost always better. Domicile matters for , UCITS funds are domiciled in Ireland (IE) for European investors, US-domiciled (US) for American ones.
| Ticker | Fund name | Provider | Domicile | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QQQ | Invesco QQQ Trust | Invesco | US | Dist | 0.20% |
| QQQM | Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF | Invesco | US | Dist | 0.15% |
| CNDX | iShares Nasdaq 100 UCITS ETF USD Acc | BlackRock | IE | Acc | 0.33% |
| EQQQ | Invesco EQQQ Nasdaq-100 UCITS ETF | Invesco | IE | Dist | 0.30% |
Accumulating, are automatically reinvested inside the fund. You don't receive cash but the share price grows. Simpler for long-term and more tax-efficient in many European countries.
Distributing, are paid out to you as cash. You decide what to do with them, but you're also responsible for declaring and paying on each distribution. Common preference for investors who want regular income.
A bit of history
Nasdaq (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) was founded in 1971 as the world's first electronic stock market. The Nasdaq-100 was created in 1985. Through the 1990s it became synonymous with the tech boom, internet companies, semiconductors, software. The dot-com (2000–2002) wiped 83% off the index; it did not recover to its year-2000 peak until 2015, fifteen years later. After that, the index entered one of the most powerful bull runs in stock market history, powered by Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and Nvidia. The 2022 rate-hike proved gravity still applies: the index fell 33% in twelve months. It recovered fully in 2023, then kept climbing on the AI boom.
- + The highest-returning major over the last 10 and 20 years, by a wide margin.
- + Direct exposure to the companies driving AI, cloud computing, and the digital economy.
- + QQQ and QQQM are among the most instruments on earth.
- + QQQM at 0.15% is cheaper than most people expect for this level of performance.
- − The dot-com (2000–2002) erased 83% of value. The index took 15 years to recover.
- − IT + Communication Services = ~76% of the . This is a sector bet dressed as a broad index.
- − Top 10 holdings account for ~43% of the total, extreme .
- − 100% US exposure. No international whatsoever.
- − No financials. The exclusion means missing banks, insurers, and the entire credit economy.
All figures are approximate end-2025 values for educational illustration. Index composition, weights, holdings and returns change constantly. Nothing here is financial advice or a recommendation.