ETF Spotlight: VOO’s $116B in Inflows Eclipsed All in 2024

Vanguard’s S&P 500 fund aims to knock IVV from the number two spot and may top SPY as world’s biggest ETF by year's end.

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RonDay
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Contributing Editor
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Reviewed by: Paul Curcio
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Edited by: Kiran Aditham

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) just wrapped a monster 2024, with its $116.1 billion in net inflows ranking as the largest among the nearly 4,000 exchange-traded funds on U.S. markets today. 

After amassing such a huge amount of cash, the $586.2 billion VOO trails the second-largest ETF, the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), by a mere $2 billion, creating just a sliver of daylight between the heavy hitters. It actually outpaced IVV’s inflows by $30 billion last year, and if its momentum continues, the ETF will move ahead of the BlackRock fund. 

VOO is positioned to take the title of world’s biggest ETF from the S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), launched 31 years ago as the U.S.’s first-ever exchange-traded fund. Industry analysts have recently speculated that SPY’s long hold of the world’s biggest ETF crown is slipping. 

“It's not a matter of if but when VOO will surpass SPY,” etf.com senior analyst Sumit Roy said. "There's a good chance it happens this year." 

Warren Buffett Owns VOO

One of the few ETFs owned by Warren Buffett, Vanguard’s S&P 500 fund was issued in 2010, a decade after IVV. Both allow investors to share in the market gains—and losses—in the S&P 500 stock index. Both charge an 0.03% management fee, and each gained about 25% last year.

(To be precise, VOO edged IVV by the smallest of margins, 24.98% to 24.93%, possibly because IVV permits holding smaller companies outside of the S&P 500, according to its etf.com fund page.) 

VOO 2024 Flows

VOO 2024 Flows

Source: etf.com

“With a 25% gain in 2024 and even more than that in 2023, it’s no surprise that VOO was attracting big assets,” etf.com research lead Kent Thune said. 

Why then did it handily top IVV’s flows and destroy SPY’s flows by a $96 billion margin? Perhaps it was the benefit of Vanguard’s coattails. While BlackRock’s iShares is the world’s biggest ETF issuer, Vanguard beat its inflows, pulling in $304.4 billion last year while BlackRock grabbed $292.1 billion. 

Ron Day is Contributing Editor at etf.com. He joined the company in October 2022 and has served as Managing Editor, deputy managing editor and editor.

Ron covered business and financial news at Bloomberg News for 20 years, working on the breaking news, technology, commodities, headlines and First Word teams. He was previously senior editor at ESG news outlet Karma Impact and filled the same role at Boundless Impact. He also covered a variety of beats at New Jersey daily papers including the Daily Record in Parsippany, the North Jersey Herald & News and the Asbury Park Press. Ron's freelance work has been published in AARP.com, Investopedia.com and BigThink.com.

Ron is an advocate and fan of literacy. He hopes to one day master his Telecaster, rather than the other way around. His wonderful family includes a 10-lb. maltipoo named Emmy. 

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