With the first half of 2025 now complete, it’s natural to survey the equity landscape to identify the top-performing firms, particularly given the uncertainty that has plagued the U.S. and global economy.  Undoubtedly, within the U.S. equities asset class, Palantir Technologies (Ticker: PLTR) has been the best-performing stock thus far.

While the sentiment of some stakeholders towards Palantir is mixed, at its core, the firm specializes in discovering patterns in data and presenting information in an accessible way, such as charts and maps. The area where Palantir’s success has gained notable recognition is its government contracts, which have been quite beneficial and lucrative for the company. According to The New York Times, the company has received over $113 million in federal funding since President Trump took office. However, Palantir was also a preferred vendor in the previous administration (i.e., the Biden administration), as the firm signed a contract during the pandemic to handle the distribution of vaccines through the Centers for Disease Control.

The growth and adoption of Artificial Intelligence offer a major opportunity for Palantir, as their latest vertical, the Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), is a large language model orchestration tool that helps businesses incorporate generative AI into their operations. AIP enables companies to create AI bots that understand their structure, data, and business concepts, revealing new insights as updated information becomes available.

Gaining Exposure to Palantir through ETFs

For Canadian investors interested in ETFs that have exposure to Palantir, several options are available.

The Single-Stock ETF Option:

For investors interested in an ETF that offers fulsome exposure to Palantir, Purpose Investment’s Palantir (PLTR) Yield Shares (Ticker: YPLT) earn a monthly yield by investing in Palantir with an active covered call strategy.  The fund uses moderate leverage of ~25% to purchase additional Palantir shares, with covered call options on ~50% of the portfolio.

Thematic Options:

Given the nature of Palantir’s business, it is a common holding within ‘future-focused’ themed investment solutions, mainly those related to Artificial Intelligence or general technology strategies. For investors interested in such niche or sector-specific investments, the following options may be worth considering.

The BMO ARK Next Generation Internet Fund ETF Series (Ticker: ARKW) invests in global equity securities of companies across various sectors focused on and expected to benefit from shifting technology infrastructure toward the cloud. This enables mobile, new, and local services, such as companies that rely on or benefit from increased use of shared technology, infrastructure, and services, internet-based products and services, new payment methods, big data, the internet of things, and social media and distribution channels that could change the way the world works.

The BMO ARK Innovation Fund ETF Series (Ticker: ARKK) mainly invests in global equity securities of companies across various sectors that develop technologically advanced products or services related to fintech innovation, genomic innovation, industrial innovation, and next-generation internet innovation that could change the way the world operates.

The Invesco Morningstar Global Next Gen AI Index ETF (Tickers: INAI/INAI.F) seeks to replicate the performance of the Morningstar® Global Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Index™. The index measures the float market capitalization-weighted performance of companies within the Morningstar Global Markets Index that are anticipated to have significant economic benefits due to their role in the advancement of artificial intelligence (“AI”) technologies.

The Evolve NASDAQ Technology Index Fund (Tickers: QQQT/QQQT.U/QQQT.B) aims to mirror the performance of the Nasdaq-100 Technology Sector Adjusted Market-Cap Weighted Index™, which includes securities from the Nasdaq-100 Index® that are classified as "technology companies" (i.e., any company categorized under the “technology industry”) according to the Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB).

Momentum Option:

Given Palantir's strong performance so far this year, it is a holding within ETF solutions that employ a momentum-based investment strategy. For investors seeking to maintain exposure to securities that have performed well recently, the following ETF solutions are worth considering.

The CI U.S. Enhanced Momentum Index ETF (Tickers: CMOM/CMOM.B) aims to replicate the performance of the VettaFi US Enhanced Momentum index, which tracks the leading 200 US Large/Mid Cap companies that meet a set of momentum metrics combined with quality metrics. 

The Vanguard Global Momentum Factor ETF (Ticker: VMO), an actively managed solution that utilizes a proprietary quantitative model to evaluate an investment universe comprised of large-, mid- and small-cap equity securities from developed markets across the world. The model implements a rules-based active approach that aims to assess the factor exposures of securities, favouring equity securities which, when compared to other securities in the investment universe, have relatively strong recent past performance.

Please note this article is for information purposes only and does not in any way constitute investment advice. It is essential that you seek advice from a registered financial professional prior to making any investment decision.